


-r 



^ 






Hq 



.^ 



v^ 






0^ .--'■.. <,^ 



^/^e 

^^'<... 






<* 






^^^ 
■^ 



.^' 



V 









A 



A 






%,# :^|^ %/ 











."'■'-.''* 


'^ 





<*. 



-p 






.\ 



^ 







w 






Kj 



^^...,.' 



^.^ 


0^ 


/ 

^>" 


^^. 






_^o^ 



^>, 



Z^^"-' 

Ia 

%.: >, 



-^^^0^ 



C" 



-r^<^tv. 



o 






•^ O. 



.0 ^ 






A^ 



'7,: ^s*^ • 



V'^ 



^' 






o 






'X 



\^' -^ 






.0' c ° " ° 



'^_ 



A 



^ 



.5^ 






A 



^-^ 



.^' 



-f 



^„ 



.^' 












.4 c> ° ^- ■ 



^. 



"-^ 



.^' 









O 

^.9 ' 'P. 



A^ 



c<^c:^^ ^ 



4o^ 







o 



.V 



%# 



-f 



A^ 



o V 



-^.-0^ 



H o. 






^^ 



\ 



A 






')> 



-^^ 



,-^ 






^. 



-.^ 



•■^.'(rf; 



.0 



"o 






-^^ 



,-^ 



-y 






^ 



<>. 






^^ 



^iil'V^"^ 



•X 



V^, 






V K ' • °- o. 



.'Sv 



^ 



<>. 






0^ 






<^ * o „ o ■ 



V. * £, „ ' <J,^ 



^^^ 



y-0^ 

^c) 



o 






^ :/^^^ 



;> A. 









,0 



^V' V 



^O 



A 



'% 









'■"' <y^ i ' • r -^^ \ ^ - n ^ (V S ' ' -^^ 



" ^<' -. ^^' ■^.- ^'--^ .v"^ ^-. A^'"^ 











,'^ 


</' 








, *— ' 


v/\ 








.-^V' 


■=^J 






■ - , 


. ■ ^c>^ 


'"<^- 

VJ 




* 






'/'• 










' " - O 






\r 


■ v' --J 






^^ 


0^ 


,y: 


•^o 


v^^ 


^-^ 




•^ 


■v^ 


-n^ 


' J, 




7 








"•j^ 








./> 








,v 


^ 








■^;^ 


^-^ 








,'\ 


.-- 
















.^. 


,V ■ ■ 








O 


r* 




'^■■ 





.0 


-Tj 




-4 


o.^ 




V-T^V^^ 






»^ 


V 


P 





Ab -J^- . . ^<S -^ ' -b 









■'-■ .'■• - v \r ,b -> 

•J^ b 



Garden Helps 




BY 

GEORGE P. HALL 

President of the Little Ltiiuiers Coiony, S(in Ysidro. Cal. 



Press of 
ELITE PRINTING COMPANY 

837 Se-veiith St., -'fgig"- Saii Diti^o, Cal. 



Co 






Dedicated to the 

San Diego Floral Association 

and 

California Garden 



CCI.A297075 



Copyright 1911 
George P. Hall, San Diego, Cal. 




George P. Hall 



Mr. George P. Hall, the author of this book, has the two 
qualities needed to make it valuable. 

First, he has knowledge both theoretical and practical; second, 
he has a great love for men, for the soil, for trees and for fruits 
and flowers. 

I should not care to trust a work of this kind in the hands 
of a man whose knowledge, however large, was not warmed by 
genuine interest in the welfare of those who till the soil either 
for pleasure or profit. I know that in writing it Mr. Hall's 
dominating idea is that he may help many men and women to 
gain an independence, to lead better, fuller, richer lives. 

Coming to California twenty years ago, Mr. Hall almost im- 
mediately became a factor of importance in the horticultural life 
of the state. He exerted a very powerful influence in the develop- 
ment of the lemon industry, devising methods of planting, prun- 
ing and spraying that have been generally adopted. 

He served for six years as Horticultural Commissioner of 
San Diego County and was chosen president of the State Board 
of Horticultural Commissioners. 

Through his contributions to newspapers and magazines he 
has been and still is, "guide, philosopher and friend" of great 
numbers all over the United States. 

His work for the Little Landers of San Ysidro, of which he 
is president, can not be estimated now nor perhaps for many 
years. The location of the colony was selected from many offer- 
ings upon his advice as an expert. He was consulted about every 
detail of the scheme of cultivation, of village improvement and 
of social life when the colony had existence only on paper. 

When the settlement was l)egun, his was the first hoe that 
struck the ground. What he has since done is prodigious, but 
what he has inspired is infinitely more. The point for the readers 
of this book is that the event has shown the soundness of his 
knowledge and judgment in certain radical departures from old 
ruts and that his wisdom on matters treated in the following 
pages has been repeatedly vindicated. 

His authority on matters of horticulture and agriculture is 
beyond question, while the spirit in which he works is — well, 
I know no word for it except "divine". 

WM. E. SMYTHE. 

San Ysidro, Calif., April 10th, 1911. 



, Table of Contents 



Foreword — Gardening in Califor- 
nia 9-10 

Soil 11-22 

Formation 11 

Subsoil 11 

Classification 13 

Composition 15 

Mineral Substances 16 

Endurance Measure of Land 

and Water 21 

Planting- 23-31 

Time to Plant 23 

Planting- Tables 21 

Sowing' and Transplanting 26 

Environment 27 

Rotation of Crops 2!) 

Irrigation and Cultivation 31-38 

Wlien to Irrigate 31 

How Much to Irrigate 32 

How to Irrigate 33 

Importance of Cultivation 37 

Cultural Directions for Vege- 
tables 33-70 

Articliolies 4U 

Asparagus 38 

Beans 40 

Beets 42 

Borecole 52 

Broccoli 43 

Cabbag-e 43 

Capers 4 8 

Cauliflower . . . .' 43 

Cardoon 48 

Carrots 4 1 

Celeriac 48 

Celery 4 7 

Chervil 45 

Chicory 46 

Chives 45 

Ciboule 45 

Collards 4(i 

Corn 4 9 

Corn Salad 4 6 

Cress 4(i 

Cucumbers 50 

Dandelion 51 

Egg Plant 51 

Endive 51 

Garlic 5 2 

Gumbo 5(; 

Horseradish 52 

Kale 5 2 

Lettuce 52 

Melons 53 

Mushrooms 55 

Okra 56 

Onions 5 6 

Parsley 58 

Parsnips 5 8 

Peas 5 

Pie Plant 65 

Peppers GO 

Potatoes 61 

Pumpkin 6:! 

Radishes 6 1 

Rhubarb 65 

Roselle 66 

Salsify 66 

Sorrel (57 

Spinach 66 

Squashes 6 7 

Sweet Potatoes 6 4 

Tomatoes 67 

Turnips 7(i 

Vegetable Oyster 6 6 



Aromatic and Medicinal Herbs. 71-72 

Anise 71 

Caraway 71 

Catnip 71 

Coriander 71 

Dill 71 

Horehound 72 

Lavender 72 

Rosemary 72 

Sage 72 

Sweet Basil 71 

Sweet Fennel 72 

Sweet Marjoram 72 

Thyme 7 2 

Wormwood 72 

Flowering Plants and Shrubs . . . 73-77 

Carnation 76 

Novelties 75 

Ornamental Trees 74 

Palms 74 

Roses 75 

Shrubs that enjoy sea winds... 74 

Street Trees 74 

Tea Roses 76 

Other Flowers 76 

Classification and Propagation. .78-36 

Best Known Families 78 

Pollenization and Hybridizing. . 82 
Multiplication by Cuttings 86 

Fertilization 87-101 

Analysis of Fertilizers 87 

Availability of Fertilizer.s 89 

Commerical Valuation 95 

Formulas 99 

Mineral Phosphates 91 

Nitrate of Soda — use of 99 

Nitrogen Culture 100 

Phosphates 8 9 

Potash Manures 93 

Soil Inoculation 100 

Superphosphates 91 

Unit System in Fertilizers 95 

Value of Farm Manures 96 

What the Plant Takes from the 

Soil 96 

What the Plant Wants 98 

Insecticides and Fungicides . . 102-108 

Aquis Ammonia Solution 105 

Arsenites 104 

Bi Sulphide of Carbon. . . .• 105 

Bordeaux Mixture 105 

Buhac 107 

Copper Solution 105 

Corrosive Sublimate 106 

Hot Water 107 

Insecticides 102 

Kerosene Emulsion 104 

Lime Sulphur and Salt 106 

Lye and Sulphur 106 

Paris Green 104 

Repellants 103 

Road Dusi 106 

Tobacco . . . , 10 7 

Eeniedies for Each Particular 

Pest 108-113 

Angle Worm i OS 

Ants i(»8 

Apliis or Plant Lice 108 

Caterpillar^! i o i 

Cut Worms no 

Pod Rust ... 1 1 

Beet Diseases m 

Mildew Ill 

Fungus Ill,' 

Calendar of Operations 113-115 

UsefiTl Information 116-119 

Reference Talile li'ii 



The author undertakes this work in the same spirit in which 
for many years he has orally or through the medium of varied 
publications answered questions that have now and again pre- 
sented themselves in the minds of the people who have been set- 
tling in this "garden spot of the world". Multitudes come to 
visit only, but the attractions prove too alluring. Every season 
therefore witnesses the arrival of those who cannot really make 
a home here without adding to the number of our picturesque 
gardens. 

So widely do the methods of gardening here diilfer from the 
practices of the States East of the Rockies that many people find 
they have to begin anew. This work is planned as an ever-ready 
assistant to the home gardener especially. l)ut it will be found 
of value to the commercial gardener as well. It is the response 
to frequent requests for placing in accessible form at a moderate 
price facts and methods in regard to cultivation of garden and 
field crops. 

The variety of questions that appear in the columns provided 
for the purpose in newspapers as well as in the periodicals more 
especially devoted to horticulture is of itself indicative of the 
need of such a work. Every gardener is more or less desir(nis 
of knowing his own garden and of fathoming its possibilities. 
He asks about his soil, what it needs to improve it, the action of 
the various chemical substances he may apply and how he may 
supply the foods to the best advantage. lie asks about his seeds 
and plants, their origin and surroundings, their habits, their 
sowing and transplanting, their irrigation and cultivation, their 
rotation and succession, their enemies and the remedies. 

He asks how he may get all that is possible from the manipu- 
lation of the combination of seed and soil. He asks many other 
questions in order to work the soil intelligently and receive re- 
turns from the labor bestowed. We give positive information 
along practical lines secured from the highest authorities and 
years of observation, experience and appropriation. 

This is a widely spreading theme that should interest thou- 
sands who are yet to be the tillers of the soil. We have but 



10 GARDENHELPS 

touched the hem of the great garment Nature has spread out for 
us to wear. Every student of life not only wonders, but worships, 
as he gets closer to Nature. How important it is for all to extend 
the knowledge of the primal source of all life. Mother Earth is 
the great repository of life. The doctrine of reciprocity is uni- 
versal. Intellect is dependent on animal sustenance. If the body 
does not receive from the animal and vegetable the proteids, 
albumenoids and fats, the chain of destiny is broken. The cow 
picks up the cream from the vegetable either in growing grass or 
bolted grain. If the soil is not fed it will not feed you. If the 
soil is constantly depleted and no return is made for what is taken 
awa.y it becomes barren and unfruitful. How important is it, 
then, to nourish the soil and replenish what we so carelessly de- 
rive from it for our own sustenance. We can see now the value 
to the world of men like Luther Burbank in searching out what 
a plant or a tree takes from the soil and what improvement can 
be made in the plants themselves. 

In California, where potatoes and peas are planted every 
month of the year, where corn bears longer than in the great corn 
centers of the world, and where numerous frostless locations pre- 
sent unsurpassed facilities for gardening in all its branches — 
here especially should every encouragement and incentive be 
given to further the study of Nature. Here should the doctor 
apply his best efforts to open the eyes of mankind to the boundless 
stores of Nature, largely allowed to remain undeveloped hitherto 
in our blindness. 

Here, it is true, are the desert and the parched ground. But 
the old Jewish prophecy may yet find a more literal fulfilment 
in California than ever dreamed of among the hanging gardens 
of Babylon, when we see the parched ground become pools of 
vi^ater and the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose. 

In California, every gardener may be a Solomon. Ilis ships 
l)ring the wealth of the world to his door, (superphospates from 
the Carolina rock, potash from the inexhaustible sources in 
Strassfurt, Germany) and the queens of Sheba declare the half has 
never been told of all his beauties, rich and rare. 




Formation 

8oil is the term applied to that part of the earth's surface 
that can be cultivated aud ou which plants can grow. 

Soil is obtained directly and indirectly from the decay of 
rock. If all the soil were removed from the earth the part left 
would be rocks and water. Soil depends largely in quality on the 
kind of rocks it was made from. Rocks have been formed by the 
action of fire or water; those formed by fire are called igneous, 
those compressed by water are aqueous. 

The igneous rocks furnish to the soil silica and aluminum 
principally and also potash, lime, magnesia, iron and other min- 
eral substances. You can see from this why soils are "spotted", 
or why one spot contains more mineral than another, or of a dif- 
ferent kind. If it happens that a large piece of potassic rock gets 
groiuul up in a certain spot, you get excess of alkali. These are 
called primary, or first rocks because they were thrown out from 
the interior of the earth. This view is supported by the fact that 
the lava now ejected from volcanos resembles "trap"' rocks. Trap 
rock is composed chiefly of two minerals, feldspar and hornblend. 
Feldspar is particularly rich in potash but poor in lime and mag- 
nesia. Hornblend is poor in potash and soda, rich in lime and 
magnesia. Granite rocks consist chiefly of quartz, feldspar and 
mica. Quartz is almost pure silica — ifint — and contains nearly all 
the compounds found in feldspar and hornblend. 

Aqueous rocks are formed from the minerals washed out of and 
compressed from the igneous rocks. Limestone and sandstone 
are examples of aqueous rocks. 

Briefly stated this gives you the origin or sources of the dif- 
ferent soils you come in contact with. 

Subsoil 



This may be considered as imperfected soil. It represents a 
stage between the rock and the perfected soil. Soil is more finely 
divided, less compact and mixed with organic and vegetable mat- 
ter. The subsoil is the feeder of the soil and gradually supplies 



12 GARDENHELPS 

the mineral parts the soil gives to the plants. Subsoil very ma- 
terially determines the character of the soil. Air, temperature, 
water all play their part in reducing rocks to soil. The most 
powerful agent is water, as it acts both mechanically and chemi- 
cally, being charged with acids or salts by flowing over rocks 
composed of either. The carbonic acid in the water absorbed 
from the atmosphere is a solvent of soda, potash, silica and iron, 
all of which are taken up by growing vegetation. 

Growth of plants aids in rotting the rocks, the roots pene- 
trate and force particles of rock to separate. In the decay of 
plants soil is kept moist, gases are generated, absorbed by the 
water and again penelrate the rocks to reduce them to smaller 
particles. Rocks covered with lichens and lower orders of plants 
are evidence of this principle of plant life being a means of re- 
ducing the rock to soil. 

The overflow of rivers is an example of the creation of what is 
called "sedimentary deposit", and where pressure and heat are 
applied it forms aqueous rock. If a piece of land is underlaid 
with sedimentary deposit you know the rock can be surely dis- 
solved by water. 

Worms and living creatures in the ground aid in preparing 
the soil for the use of plants ; they also carry down considerable 
vegetable matter, which aids in the development of the undersoil. 

Rich mesa soils that are comparatively level are superior in 
that they do not lose their fertility so soon as soils that are con- 
stantly moving, thin at the top of the hill, thick in the valley. 
The same causes that are at work to make the soil also unite to 
change its position, thus giving loss. In selecting soil, either high, 
level mesa or valley, sedimentary soils are preferable because 
they are more enduring. They are called "soils in place". 

Transported or "alluvial" soils are those that have been 
transported from one place to another by action of water. In 
the past, geology tells us, glacial rivers moved immense bodies 
of soil into lakes and valleys. Yet sometimes on the upper heights 
also may be found these alluvial soils, which are generally rich 
and well fitted for the growth of crops. 

Drift soils can always be told by the presence of rounded 
rocks or boulders, and drift soils are generally fertile because 
there has been brought together from various sources a combina- 
tion of many, if not all the constituents of soil. 



GARDENHELPS 13 

Classification of Soils 

Soils are composed of clay, carbonate of lime, mineral and 
vegetable substances and are classed as sand, clay, lime and peat. 
These have snb-divisions according as the composition is more or 
less of a prevailing ingredient. 

(a) Sand is not soil really, for sand alone would not directly 
serve as a source of plant food. "So poor it won't raise beans," is 
sometimes said of sand. Sand is" really silica or ground-up flint, 
and alone would be unserviceable in producing crops. Chemi- 
cally, sand or silica is composed of the mineral silicon united 
wih the element oxygen and does not serve directly as food for 
plants. But it is almost indispensable, as it lightens heavy soil. 
makes close grained soil permeable to air, moisture and warmth; 
all requisites for the successful growth of the plant. 

(b) Clay soils, which are a compound of aluminum and 
oxygen, are, chemically speaking, just as useless as sand as a 
source of plant food. Clay is exactly the reverse of sand, as it is 
compact. Sand will easily fall apart; clay, especially when moist, 
adheres so firmly it can be moulded into brick and tile. Sand, 
from its porous nature, rapidly loses water, while clay retains it. 
Sand absorbs heat and soon dries, while clay is so compact it is 
difficult for the air to penetrate, or warmth to reach down lieneath 
the surface. Clay is hard to work. Unless it is well drained, its 
crops will suifer two ways, too wet and too dry. In the latter case. 
the land becomes so hard it is difficult for the roots to penetrate. 
If clay and sand are mixed it makes a loam that is ideal physi- 
cally for nearly all purposes in plant growth. 

(c) Lime, calcareous or chalky soils are so termed when 
they contain at least twenty percent, of lime. These soils are 
generally easy to work and when mixed with clay form what in 
California is termed "mealy adobe", in contrast to the black 
adobe that lacks lime to the extent of twenty per cent. These 
soils are particularly adapted to grain raising, since all cereals 
enjoy a good proportion of lime in order to form the stalk of the 
grain. Lime is likewise required by animals to form the bones. 
And again, ground bones are an excellent substitute for lime where 
it is lacking in the soil. 

(d) Vegetable soils are usually found in the vicinity of 
marshes and lagoons or former lakes which have dried up and 



14 GARDEN HELPS 

left the vast aecninulation of decayed vegetable matter as the 
foundation for plant growth. These soils are very rich and are 
especially adapted for crops like celery, which require unusually 
rich soil. For most crops, however, the peat needs an admixture 
of other soil to make it ideal for all purposes of the agriculturist, 
as there is almost an entire lack of the mineral constituents found 
in other soils. 

(e) Loam. 8oil composed of a mixture of clay and sand is 
called loam, and is best adapted to the purposes of farming and 
gardening. If soil contains only from ten to twenty per cent, of 
clay it is called sandy loam; if from twenty to thirt}^ per cent, 
clay, it is called loam. If the clay is in nearly equal proportion, 
from thirty to fifty per cent, it is clay loam. Gravel and lime 
loams are those which contain gravel or coarse lime and sand in 
large proportion. All the natural divisions of soil are much im- 
proved for the use of the gardener according as they more nearly 
approach the division called loam. 

(f) Perfect Soil. A soil that contains sufficient proportion 
of sand to freely admit air, warmth and moisture, in proportion 
so it will be warm and permeable ; sufficient clay to keep it cool, 
to prevent rapid washing away or leaching of the moisture and the 
fertilizers added from time to time, and to prevent rapid evapora- 
tion and thus assist in the decay of vegetable matter in the soil, 
is perfect soil. These conditions are rare in the make-up of soils. 

It often occurs that it is cheaper to raise only that crop to 
which a particular piece of soil is adapted than attempt the ex- 
pense of changing the make-up of the soil. In garden operations, 
the latter is admissible and even profitable. If the soil is poor 
and contains nothing but sand, it can be enriched by the addition 
of clay or peat. Clay that is too sticky and tenacious to work 
freely can be changed by mixing lime and sand, or plaster, rough- 
age of almost any material that will change its constituent parts. 
It would l)e unwise, however, to attempt to change large bodies of 
soil, that are only adapted to raising grain or grasses, to the use 
for intensive gardening; better move to a spot that suits your pur- 
pose than try to change large fields to meet your convenience. 

Soils are called warm or cold, light or heavy. In warm soils 
the particles lie loosely together and readily admit air, warmth 
and moisture. They are also light because the particles can be 
easily moved, readily changed from one position to another. 



GARDENHELPS 15 

Heavy soils are eonipai't, tenaeions, adhesive. They admit water 
slowly, but retain it for a loiiij: time, making thenf heavy to move 
when wet, and when dry hanl and un\ielding. Heavy soils are 
much more difficult to cultivate than light, warm soils, but gen- 
erally infinitely richer in materials that furnish food for plant life. 
The heavy soils are usually more adapted to the production of 
grain and deciduous fruits than early vegetables, which are at 
home on the light, warmer soils. The purpose for which you de- 
sire the land to subserve should be the first consideration. 



Composition of Soil 



Beside the qualities already ascriVx'd to soil there are two 
distinct classes of substances: first. vege1al)le or organic, derived 
from decaying plants; second, mineral or inorganic, derived as' 
we have seen from the rocks on the earth's surface. 

Organic substances are composed of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen 
and nitrogen. The latter is of most vital importance in developing 
the early life of the plant and is especially useful in the produc- 
tion of earl}' vegetables. 

Humus is made up of the four elements al)(we described. It 
is derived in part from the decaying and clecayed roots, leaves and 
stalks of plants that have grown in and upon the soil, and when 
decayed and returned to the soil again have given it a darker color 
in sandy soils, and an improved texture in heavy soils. Humus is 
useful in all descriptions of soil and is well illustrated in Avhat is 
commonly known as "leaf mold". People gather it and use it as 
an improver of soil and say usually it is a direct plant food. 
Science says that it is not directly a plant food, but in its final 
stages of decay it furnishes carbonic acid gas. You have seen 
bubbles come up from pools of Avater where leaves were decaying. 
This is the carbonic acid gas escaping. It escapes in the soil just 
the same, but we cannot see it, and this with ammonia added to 
water makes food the plant can directly take up. Therefore the 
older and more nearly decayed the leaf mold, the nearer it ap- 
proaches the condition where it can be called plant food. Humus 
improves light, sandy soils, in that it gives direct absorbing power 
to the soil as well as giving it at the same time retentive power to 
hold moisture. It will absorl) and retain more moisture than any 
other ingredient in the soil. It acts as a sponge to take in, store 



16 GARDEN HELPS 

up, and give off the moisture, thus playing a most important part 
in making ready the food for the plant in the only form the plant 
can take it, i. e., liquid. Humus improves stiff clay soil through 
its property of loosening up and consequently aerating otherwise 
impervious soil. It will be seen that humus is important in giving 
the physical quality soils need to enable them to retain heat and 
moisture, and to supply plant food. 



Mineral Substances in Soil 

The mineral substances of the soil are called "inorganic" and 
are identical with the ash found in a plant after you burn it. 
These are silica, alumina, lime, potash, magnesia, phosphoric acid, 
soda, iron, chlorine and sulphuric acid. The most important con- 
stituents are phosphoric acid and potash. Phosphoric acid is 
usually found in combination with lime and sometimes with iron 
and aluminum but especially in rocks that contain fossils and large 
quantities of bones. The Carolina rocks from which "super- 
phosphates" are made are examples of this stored plant food, 
which when treated with sulphuric acid makes the phosphoric acid 
soluble in water. When put into moist soil it becomes available to 
the plant, while in the rock form it never could be. There is a long 
list of articles that contain phosphoric acid in more or less pro- 
portion. 

(a) Lime is essential in setting free elements locked in the 
soil. Lime is obtained from decaying limestone rock, or 
by the process of burning the rock, and is found 
in the fossilized rocks that contain animal deposits, 
as lime has existed in the bones of all animals since 
the dawn of creation. The use of lime in agriculture antedates 
the Christian era. The necessity of lime as a food for the higher 
order of plants has been indisputably demonstrated. Its physical 
effect on the soil is marked and positive, changing stiff, obdurate 
soil to tillable conditions. It is an indirect food in setting free 
other locked-up elements in the soil. Lime assists in the assimila- 
tion of atmospheric nitrogen in the case of alfalfa and other 
leguminous plants. It attacks inert combinations of potash and 
phosphoric acid, and renders their fertilizing qualities available 
to the plant. Lime both cures sourness of soils and prevents the 
combination of sour humus that might be injurious to the plant. 



GARDENHELPS 17 

Liming mnkes clay soils more friable, and sandy soils more com- 
pact, thus improving' tlie texture of both. Large quantities of lime 
should not be used on sandy soil, at one time- — sutticient lime with 
sand makes mortar — but small (piantities used frequently give 
compactness. Too nuich lime and wood ashes combined give ex- 
cess of alkali, which will increase the tendency to make potatoes 
scabby, if the disease is already in the soil, as it is of an alkaline, 
erosive character. On tlie other hand, elul) foot in turnips and 
cabbage is diminished by use of lime. You can apply lime even in 
large ciuantities on sandy soil if you combine it with the applica- 
tion of barnyard manure and ploAv it under well. Lime is valuable 
in reducing coarse vegetable matter to an assimilable form, by put- 
ting it in the heaps of decaying vegetation or compost. If a little 
common salt is added the process will l)e assisted materially in 
formation of carbonates of soda or potash. Plants like lettuce, 
spinach, beets, onions, melons and blue grass, tliat are total failures 
on sour soil (as is almost any plant) tlirive vigorously if given lime 
to correct the acidity of the soil. The use of lime in the soil is an 
important study as to its effect on both the soil and the plant. 
Not all plants of the same family desire lime. Fur instance, the 
Delaware grape is greatly helped by it, l)ut the Concord cares 
little for its assistance. AVatermelons detest lime, while the musk 
melon is in full accord. Black cap raspl)erries are not helped by 
liming, l)ut the red Cuthl)ert responds with vigorous growth to its 
applications. 

(b) Potash. Crops of all kinds remove from the soil each 
season considerable potash, which must, as in the case of all ele- 
ments removed, be returned in some form, if the fertility of the 
soil is to be maintained. All sandy soils if not underlaid by red or 
yellow e\ii\ are apt to be deficient in potash. In the early days of 
farm operations wood ashes were the principal source of potash, 
and are still valuable in furnishing lye (alkali), but the present 
source of supply is the Strasfurt mines in Germany, and though 
worked constantly since 1862, the supply seems to be inexhausti- 
})le. These potash salts are mined and in their crude state contain, 
mixed with the potash, other salts that are some times injurious 
to plant life. The crude products shipped to this country consist 
of Kanit and Sylvanit. 

Kanit is mixed with a large proportion of chloride of sodium — 
common salt — with the chlorides of sodium and magnesium and 



18 GARDEN HELPS 

sulphates of magnesium and potassium. It has not more than 12 
per cent, of actual potash, or potassium oxide. Sylvauit is even 
credited with a less per cent, of actual potash than kanit; the 
average showing is 16 per cent. Both are not so marked as lime in 
their physical intiuence. but act on the soil as solvents in certain 
cases. They are slow in action and must be applied a consid- 
erable time before any effect can be observed. 

]Muriate of potash is manufactured from the above mentioned 
crude forms of potash and from them is resolved an article that 
contains from 40 to 50 per cent, actual potash. The principal im- 
purity is common salt. Purity and price depend on the method 
of its manufacture, which varies with ditferent producers of the 
fertilizer. This sulpliate form of potash is also called "high- 
grade" sulphate. For use on certain cr()])s. like potatoes and 
tobacco, it is very desirable. Fruits generally it sweetens. It is 
the direct influence in the hand of the Great Artificer that puts the 
finishing touches of beauty and flavor to the fruit. Without it 
they all would be insipid and practically valueless. 

(c) Phosphoric Acid. One of the three principal elements 
that a plant nuist have is phosphoric acid. It is an ingredient in 
all fertile soils, Init generally is present in very small quantities, 
and is quickly taken up by the plant and must be replaced by some 
outside agency, or the soil will degenerate far below the normal 
standard re(iuired for successful production of crops. Phosphoric 
acid is usually found in connection with lime and especially in fos- 
siliferous rocks. While nitrogen is the element that accelerates 
growth of leaf and wood, and potash is the one that sweetens and 
makes the product approach perfection, it is the office of the phos- 
phoric acid to impart tissue and fibre. With the assistance of lime 
it adds virility to seed and abounding life through the whole 
structure of the plant. We have said its deficiency must be sup- 
plied by artificial means, or manures derived from phosphates. 
Phosphate is a salt formed by the union of phosphoric acid with 
some base that will make it available to the plant. ]\Iuch of the 
phosphoric acid in soil is not available until lime is put in the soil 
to set it free. ]\Iany of the phosphates that contain phosphoric 
acid are not available until treated, or lie in the soil a long time 
and become emancipated from the element with which they are 
united. Bone is a source of phosphoric acid, but a plant cannot 
assimilate bone until by some means it is softened and liquified. 



G A R D E N H E L P S 19 

If the bone must lie in the snil till the action of elements in the 
soil reduce it, it would be a long time before the plant would re- 
ceive any benefit from it. So there are ways of reducing the bone 
to a condition that it may become available. (We cite bone be- 
cause it is commonly known and the process of reducing bone to 
food that is ready for plants is similar to that of reducing rock 
and other material in which there is a per cent, of phosphoric acid 
sufficient to warrant the expense of reducing it.) Bone is ground 
and it can readily l)e seen that the finer the particles the more 
readily they will decompose in the soil and become food for plants. 
Another process is to acidulate the bones. Plants have no teeth 
and cannot chew bones. But treat them in a solution of sulphuric 
acid and the substance ol)tained is readily soluble in water and can 
of course be taken up by the plant. The amount of phosphoric 
acid in bones depends on the kind of bones, whether from an old 
ox or a young calf. The bones of the ox are matured and are 
richer in phosphate of lime and poorer in nitrogen, while the 
young bones have the prop;)rtions reversed. The story of the 
men that buried seven tnm cats under the cherry tree and got 
only a crop of leaves hints at the proportion of nitrogen in the 
bones of animals that only have soft bones and a preponderance 
of ligaments and muscles. Raw bone is estimated to contain 
22 per cent, of phosphoric acid and 4 per cent, of nitrogen. Bone 
meal, if well ground, soon becomes available in the soil, but would 
have to be put in some time ahea,d in order that the processes of 
soil disintegration might accomplish what you wimld by the 
cpiicker method of treating the bone with acid. Bones are 
steamed in order to obtain by-products found in them, as gelatine 
and glue. The steamed bone loses more of its nitrogen but re- 
tains its per cent, of phosphoric acid. Steamed bone brought 
under high pressure to extract the glue and nitrogenous sub- 
stances, is often reduced to finer particles than when ground. As 
a source from which the plant can obtain its food, it is superior 
to the ground raw bone, and may become available in the soil the 
season it is applied, which is seldom the ease wnth ground bone. 

Bone black, is another valuable source of phosphoric acia. 
The best bones are selected, dried and then made into charcoal 
by heating and evaporating all vegetable substances. They are 
then ground to a powder that can be applied direct and is avail- 
able immediatelv when the moisture of the soil unites with it. It 



20 GARDEN HELPS 

contains about thirty-five per cent of Phosphoric acid and a small 
amount of nitrogen. 

Bone ash is the residuum of piles of liones burned. It is 
shipped in bulk from South America, and usually does not contain 
more than twenty-five per cent of Phosphoric acid. Bone Phos- 
phates, of any kind are, by reason of the fact that they are ob- 
tained from organic materials, more useful in the soil than those 
obtained from mineral sources. 

Mineral Phosphates (containing lime and Phosphoric Acid) 
are found largely in earth, clay and rock deposits in Carolina. 
Florida and elsewhere. "Sand Phosphates," from a clay forma- 
tion: "Pebble Phosphates" from river beds and rock or boulder 
phosphates come from Florida, but far superior is the Carolina 
rock which contains as high as forty per cent of Phosphoric Acid. 

Iron phosphate or basic slag is obtained in the process of 
manufacturing steel when lime is put in the furnace to aid in 
collecting the phosphoric acid from the molten metal. The cinders 
when finely ground are excellent for clay soil, also f(U' sand and 
for grass lands. Iron phosphates are valuable as they are soon 
made available in the soil. 

As before stated, mineral phosphates require more acid to 
reduce them, and consequently are not always thoroughly dis- 
solved. Where there are some undissolved piu'tions, it sometimes 
happens that when they come in contact with other undissolved 
minerals in the soil they "revert" or take more inaccessible form 
than liefore. In computing the worth of phosphoric acid it is 
I'sually the custom to calculate that all the sources for the reverted 
portion is supposed to make good at some future time and is 
simply counted as being "disfigured but still in the ring." 

The diacalcie or reverted phosphoric acid is available, in this 
way. It stays just where it is until the roots skirmish and reach 
it. On the other hand well dissolved phosphates flow directly to 
the roots and act both as host and waiter. 

(d) Nitrogen. One of the most useful and costly elements 
requisite as plant food is nitrogen. It is largely a product from 
the air. Of recent years legumes or cover crops, used as green 
manures, gather the free nitrogen from the air and by the process 
of nature transfer it to the soil. Peas, some beans, clover, alfalfa 
and several luemliers of the pulse-pea family gather nitrogen and 
enrich the soil with the supply obtained and given to the soil 



GARDENHELPS 21 

through the roots of the h^gumiuous plants. In addition, nitrogen 
is obtained from many articles but the principal one is nitrate 
of soda, obtained from the nitrate fields in Chili. This product 
when purchased in sacks is ready to sow on the soil and is im- 
mediately available to the plant as soon as it is dissolved by water. 
It dissolves like common salt. Nitrogen is an indispensible ele- 
ment in making early vegetables force ahead, and is required in 
more or less degree in the production of all vegetal)le products, 
fruits and grains. It is especially useful in all instances where 
rapid and abundant leaf growth is desired and is exceedingly 
helpful to growing grasses, either as fodder for stock, or in giving 
color and vigor to the lawn. For growing nursery stock it is 
almost indispensible or as an assistant in growing garden vege- 
tables. It is generally used as a top dressing, though not in Cali- 
fornia, when it is expected excessive rains will soon leach it out 
of the soil. It is best applied in small doses at intervals of a month 
or so. If 100 p(Hinds were to be applied, it would be better to 
divide into three equal parts and add after a rain when it must 
l)e cultivated in to reach moisture. It can be applied in trenches 
a distance of a foot or more from the row or drill and water ap- 
plied slowly. It will dissolve and the j^lant will soon receive the 
benefit. It should not lie put too far away from the plant or it 
may not receive any benefit directly from its application. If 
sown broadcast liefiu-e a light rain is would all he melted into the 
soil; it is an immediate acting compound when water is applied. 
It should not ])e left in pih^s and Imnches close to a plant as it 
would burn it. Nitrate of Soda used skillfully is of great ad- 
vantage to the gardener and of as great value as lime itself. 



E'.ndurance Measures of Land and Water 

One gallon, liquid measure contains 56,000 grains. If an an- 
alysis of water shows 10, 20 or more or less grains of salt of any 
kind, it is that many grains of the 56,000 to be deducted from its 
purity. The deleterious matter, found in the water and generally 
left in the soil after prolonged irrigation, includes chlorides, sul- 
phides and carbonates, or common salt, glauber salt and salsoda. 
Of these common salt is the most dangerous to plant life as it can- 
not be changed; it is always salt no matter how minutely diluted. 
The glaulier salt (black alkali) is the next in its proportion of 



22 



GARDEN HELPS 



danger to plant life, but it can be changed to the carbonate. This 
is a less dangerous form (white alkali) which is produced by the 
application of gypsum in sufficient quantities to neutralize the 
glauber salts and make them less erosive to the tender bark or 
skin of the plant. 

The government experiments and determinations are based on 
the estimate that the weight of an acre-foot of salt is 4,000,000 
pounds, one per cent, of this would be 40.000 pounds and one- 
tenth per cent, would be 4,000. We give below a partial list of 
endurance of plants or the total amount of these cond)ined salts 
they will tolerate in the acre. 



Name of Plant Pounds 

Grapes 44,900 

Olives 41,100 

Apricots 10,080 

Apples 16,120 

Almonds 28,500 

Pears 20,900 

Peaches 11,280 

Prunes 11,800 

Lemons 5,700 

Mulberry 5,700 

Gluten Wheat 24,320 

Washington Palm 15,260 

Eucalyptus 40,400 

Date Palm 8,820 

Barlev 25,520 



Name of Plant Pounds 

Camphor tree 7,020 

Salt Bush 156,720 

Alfalfa (old) 110,320 

Sorghum 81,360 

Radish 62,840 

Artichoke 42,900 

Beets 59,840 

Carrot 28,480 

Wheat 12,280 

Burr Clover 17,000 

Celerv 13,180 

Alfalfa (young) 13,120 

Figs 26,400 

Suntlower 59,840 




m rlanting m 

Time to Plant 

While there is not a month in the whole year in California 
that von may not pnt seed in the ground as a successor to a former 
crop or a follower of the same, j'et there are two distinct planting 
seasons best suited to certain plants, according to whether they 
require more or less hours of sun. The sun nearly always shines 
but in some months there are many more hours of it then in others. 
All sun-loving plants should be given the time of the longest days 
which are their source of power and growth. It is wise not to 
attempt to disarrange the plan nature has provided, but follow out 
as far as possible the intimations of the plant for its development 
in the season best suited to its reaching satisfactory perfection. 
If this is not done the effort and best intentions may be unremun- 
erative and disappointing. F(U' instance, to plant canteloupes — 
except in the Impm-ial country — in Januai'y in the open, and 
expect rapid growth and development would be as much an 
attempt to change the order of nature as it would be to try to 
raise early cabl)age, in July. Both would be out of the seasonal)le 
order of planting and in most portions of California should be 
reversed. The seasons are divided into Summer and Winter, or 
moist cool conditions for one class of plants and warm dry con- 
ditions for others. There are a few plants that can be grown 
during the entire season and by adjusting their environment as 
regards position and aid of irrigation you have their product the 
entire year if you so desire. Members of each family of plants 
are selected for this purpose that will most easily conform them- 
selves to the changed conditions of temperature, for it is the few 
varying degrees of temperature that cause the two distinct divi- 
sions of time to which you adapt the growth of plants. There 
are a few plants that are at home during the entire season and 
conform themselves to the slight variations of temperature that 
occur in the months of December and January. The list given 
below will give a substantial guide as to times of planting each 
variety named. 



24 GARDENHELPS 

Planting Tables 

Artichoke — Globe, plant seed in March and April. 

Artichoke — Tnberous, plant tubers from February to June. 

Asparagus — One or two-year-old roots, plant from January to 
March. 

Asparagus — Seed, sow from February to April. 

Beets — Table varieties, sow seed from January to April and July 
to September. 

Beets — Stock varieties and sugar beets, sow in March. 

Beans — Broad or Windsor, best in the cool months, sow in Sep- 
tember to December and January. 

Beans — Dwarf or bush, plant from February to April, (early crop) 
July to September. 

Beans — Pole, March, April, May and June. 

Broccoli — Seed or plants, from January to March and from July 
to December. 

Cabbage — Early, seed from January to ^March and July to De- 
cember. 

Cabl)age — Late, plants : March to July ; seed. May to July. 

Carrots— Seed from January to April ; transplant from March 
to May. 

Cauliflower — Seed from January to April, and September to De- 
cember. 

Cauliflower — Plants, from Februar}^ to May and from September 
to December. 

Chervil — Plants, February to May and August to December. 

Chives — Plants. February to ]\[ay ; Septem])er and Octol)er. 

Collards — Seed or Plants, February and March, September and 
October. 

Chicory — Seed, February to April. 

Corn, Sweet — Plant, from April to August. 

Corn, Salad — January to April and September to November. 

Cress- — Seed, every month in the year. 

Cucumbers — Seed, from April to August. 

Egg Plant — Seed from March to July, in hot bed. Set plants 
from April to August. 

Garlic — Sets in December. 

Horseradish — Roots, October to IMarch. 

Kale — Seed, January to March, July to December. 

Kohlrabi — Seed, January to April, September to December. 

Leeks— Seed, January to April, September to December. 

Lettuce— Seed, all the year, in summer months, partial shade. 



GARDEN HELPS 



25 



Melons — Seed, March to July. 

^Mustard — Seed, ^lareh to July. * 

Onion — Seed, February to ^lay, October to December. 

Parsley — Seed, January to April, October to December. 

Parsnip — Seed, January to April, September to October. 

Peas — Every month in the year; sulphur in summer to prevent 

mildew. 
Peppers — Seed, April to July. 
Peppers — Plants, April to August. 
Potato — Plant in February for sunnner crop, and August for 

winter crop. 
Potatoes, Sweet — Plant, ]\Iarch to July. 
Pumpkin — Seed, March to August. 

Rhubarb — Seed, ]\Iarch to April, Roots from January to ]March. 
Radish — Seed, all the year round. 
Salsify — Seed, February to April. 
Spinach — ^Seed, all the year. 
Tobacco — Seed, February to April. 
Tomato — Seed, January to ^lay ; plants April to August. August 

gives winter crop. 
Turnip — Seed, February to September. 




All small seeds, like celery or seeds of similar size, should be 
sown in boxes or beds, very lightly covered, (not more than three 
times the size of the seed in depth of soil above them) and the 
bed kept warm and moist, the liest growing condition, and allowed 
to groAv in the bed till large enough to transplant. Seeds like 
cabbage, radish, turnips, beets, etc.. can be sown in rows where 
they are to remain, but if protection from either heat, cold, insects 
or birds is desired they are best kept in boxes or beds that can 
be covered at will, either with lath shutters or cloth tacked on 
movable frames. Cabbage, cauliflower or broccoli can be kept 
exempt from ravages of insects, or prey of moths and in a small 
compass a large number of plants can be raised in vigorous health. 
Care must be taken in watering plants in l)oxes or small beds ; 
the tendency is to overdo the matter and keep them too wet, which 
induces mouldy conditions as Avell as an invitation to fungus dis- 
orders which thrive best under exeessivt' dampness. 

SoAv the seed in drills slightly indented in the soil. Sow quite 
thickly, especially if you intend to take out when plants are about 
one inch high and plant in other boxes or cans, to give them a 
stronger root force and a steadier growth. Use nitrate of soda 
at rate of one tablespoonful to a gallon of water in the watering 
can once a week. 

If you can, reset plants from the bed into bottomless cans, 
turnips or beets scooped out and filled with well-enriched soil, 
and permit the young plants to grow in these for a few weeks, 
then set in the open without removing the plant from its recept- 
acle, and 3'ou do not for a moment check its growth. Seeds of 
tomatoes, eggplant, pepper, melon, squash, cucumber or canteloupe 
put in such receptacle as noted above and started in a warm 
sheltered place, can be advanced several weeks in growth before 
being planted in the open, without removing them from their 
cradle. Transplanting should be done in the evening of cloudy 
weather, if possible, but if in l)right sunlight small plants should 
l)e shaded with paper cones. 



GARDENHELPS 27 

Environment 

By environment is meant that eondition and siirroundini? of 
eircnmstanees best snited to the deveh)pment of the plant or ani- 
mal. A polar bear does not enjoy tlie tropics; the snrroundin^s 
are all different from its native environment. The banana is a 
native of the swamp, henee thrives best if given the conditions as 
nearly as possible like those where originally' raised. If yon know 
the habit or liking of a plant even very diverse conditions may 
be tempered and modified so they will become tolerable and even 
acceptable to the plant changed from its native envirnnmenf. 
The trifoliafa orange is an example. The orange naturally of the 
tropics, by being grafted to the trifoliafa, or wild species of 
orange, may be made to live and produce in climates diverse from 
its native home. We do not aim here to enter the broad field of 
plant transference, migration and transfusion, but to show that 
in a semi-tropical country very nuuiy things are possible by reason 
of the e(iuable climate, in the line of introducing plants that live 
in a similar degree of temperature, but under diverse conditions. 
The banana is a fair example of what might be done by as nearly 
as possible giving it its environment. We see people raising 
banana plants ; some have fine fruit and again some have none, 
from the very same class of plants. Why the difference? One 
plant is fed liberally with li(iuid manure, is never permitted to 
suffer for wafer, is planted in a sheltered nook where winds will 
not annoy and sun will always warm and the plant grows and 
smiles as if in its own native tropical swamp. It probably will 
never measure up to the plant in the tropics as far as making a 
commercial sluiwing, but it demonstrates the fact that good, 
wholesome bananas can be raised if thought is given to its nat- 
ural requirement. A lady who tries to raise violets and pansies in 
tlie heat of the l)lazing sun on the west side of the house soon 
finds they are short lived and are only a memory, as compared 
with those raised on the north side of the building along with the 
English ivy, calla lilies and many plants that prefer shade to the 
hot sun. Reverse the operation and put the gaillardia, the rose 
and the carnation in the shade and they will prove unsatisfac- 
tory and a disappointment. Put our prolific climber, the delicate 
blue solanum, out of the sun and it loses its leaves and refuses to 
bloom. The plan of "sticking things out" in any place inde- 



28 GARDENHELPS 

pendent of the claims it has upon you for the very best judgment 
you can supply, is disastrous alike to you and your delicate 
protege. It is true that occasionally an acorn will split a rock 
and raise a spreading oak, but the exception proves the rule that 
it would be unwise to plant acorns on rocks in the hope they would 
raise a forest, while if you planted them in the soft, yielding soil 
you would soon see them exceed the rockliound l)rother. 

Before sowing or setting out plants, vegetables or shrubs, try 
if possible to tind out or understand as nearly a possible just 
what condition the plant best thrives under, and then strive as 
nearly as possible to give the plant its environment. If you have 
adobe, loam and sand in distinct divisions on your premises, 
select the plant best suited for the place ; cereals or stone fruit 
for the adobe, vegetables and small fruits for the loam, and for 
the sand, strawberry, melon, corn and kindred plants that love 
plenty of sun and warm soil. ]\Iost small fruits will thrive on any 
quality of soil that has depth for their roots. The plants that are 
not particular where they are, if only they get plenty to eat and 
drink, can be put on soil not so easy to Avork. It is particularly 
necessary- in bringing plants from other countries that you know 
what are the conditions under which they grow and thrive. A 
lady recently received a beautiful specimen of the cactus family 
from Mexico. She potted it and watered it and watered it again. 
She gave it wet tea leaves, soaked it with ammonia water and all 
the wet things she could think of to make her pet grow, but it 
drooped and l)egan to rot. A friend told her one day the cactus 
grew without any water, save what came sparingly in the rainy 
season and that she was killing the plant with supposed kindness. 
The plant was laid out in the sun for a few days and began to 
revive and from the part not rotted away a new shoot started out 
and the plant finally became one to admire. It is said that when 
one of the Esquimaux that came back with Peary was given his 
choice between a tallow candle or a stick of candy, he invariably 
took the candle and ate it with a relish. The Esquimaux, after a 
while, ceased to crave the candle so much, and gradually became 
accustomed to civilized diet. So plants can be gradually taught 
to desire changes of treatment and change of country, and the 
introduction of plants from distant countries is constantly being 
made. The Department of Agriculture has its explorers searching 
the ends of the earth to find plants that live in a similar environ- 



GARDENHELPS 29 



m 



ent as alfalfa that will produce another erop in colder weather, 
and another species that will live with only a little water. Plants 
of all descriptions are being investigated with a view to their in- 
troduction to our even climatic conditions. 

The whole history is as important as interesting, and as neces- 
sary to understand and take advantage of, so Ave may get the best 
results from our investigation and application of the principles of 
suitable environment. 



Rotation of Crops 

Rotation means not oidy the change of crops, but change in 
the order of their planting, so the successive plantings may receive 
the full amount of nutrition in the soil. 

Where manures are applied with regularity, it has been found 
that rotation is not so absolutely essential, but in the absence of 
the replenishing power the elements become exhausted in the soil, 
some nuicli sooner than others, in proportion as the crop takes 
more or less of its favorite element from the soil. Rotation helps 
keep up the productiveness of lands constantly cropped. 

If a crop like sugar cane or sorghum was planted and grown 
previous to planting potatoes, there is little hope of receiving a 
medium yield of potatoes, because the cane has taken so much of 
the nitrogen away that there is little left for the potato, which re- 
(piires both nitrogen and potash in about equal quantities. It mat- 
ters not that the potash l)e sufficient if the nitrogen is absent or the 
phosphoric acid has been nearly exhausted. The crop would be 
a failure and either some crop, like peas, that requires less nitro- 
gen, must be planted or the loss of the nitrogen made good. 

Some reasons for rotation of crops are : 

1st. It is a means of aiding in maintaining the fertility of the 
soil. While all crops are made up of the same chemical elements, 
the proportions in which they are used varies greatly, as does the 
quantity or proportion they leave in the soil for the use of the 
future erop. 

2nd. The range of the roots of different crops makes a ma- 
terial difference. A shallow-rooted plant does not penetrate the 
depth of soil that the deep-rooted one does, hence its range is more 
superficial. If a deep-rooted plant had preceded it would find the 
element it needed had been taken away to a greater depth than it 



30 GARDEN HELPS 

could reach, consequenth^ would languish for the missing element. 
8rd. Crops difit'er in the lenglh of time consumed in making 
their growth or coming to maturity and the season in which they 
grow best. The nutrients of the soil are more quickly exhausted 
in warm than in cold weather, but in a climate where growth is 
perpetual the process of exhaustion is continuous. An ordinary 
grain crop will take away mucli more potash than will potatoes or 
most root crops. AVhile peas and beans take nitrogen from the 
soil, they also impart much in return that they gather from the 
atmosphere. Clover, for instance, requires a large amount of 
nitrogen (more than a crop of grain), yet it leaves a large portion 
l>ehind, which crops like barley- oats and wheat do not. The 
knowledge of this fact has led to the process of green manuring 
in orchards, using plants that, like the clover, will gather from the 
air, whereby new supply of nitrogen is obtained, and then such 
plants as require a large amount of this element can be success- 
fully grown. 

There have been various theories regarding the necessity of 
rotation. As early as 1556 Camillo Tarello presented to the senate 
of Venice a better plan of agriculture by alternating crops and 
letting the "tired soil" have rest. Dr. DeCandolla assumed that 
plants threw oflt' excretions from their roots that poisoned the 
soil for a continuation of the same crop, but served as nutrient 
material for other crops. This excretory theory, while accepted 
for a time, was finall}^ set at nought by Lebig's ''mineral theory", 
as it was called, which was quite generally accepted as explaining 
the facts accomplished by rotation. According to this theory 
plants obtained their mineral or ash constituent from the soil, and 
from the atmosphere the supply of nitrogen and carbon. 

The loss'of nitrogen through drainage is less when successive 
crops are grown, as the plant takes up what the drainage in wet 
portion of the season would leach out. Intensive culture, con- 
stantly keeping the land at work furnishing food for the plant is 
the means of securing the very most from the soil. 

The plan of rotation must be learned largely by experience 
as quality of soil, range of temperature and physical composition 
of the field or garden have much to do with the changes that may 
be made, as well as the crops you may grow. But the unerring 
rule may be adopted that where you follow one crop successively 
for several seasons there is a diminution in returns. The lesson 



GARDEN HELPS 



31 



is that you should seek the remedy in chang'ing hieation and seed 
and add those fertilizers which you think have been largely drawn 
upon and need replenishing. 




In a country that depends a portion of the year on artificial 
means of M'atering, it is necessary as nearly as possible to follow 
nature and study her ways so we may avoid mistakes. The nat- 
ural inquiries you will nuike if you have not been accustomed to 
raising garden vegetal)les and fruits by irrigation are: AVhen, 
how much and how shall I irrigate? 



When to Irrigate 



The time to irrigate is before the plant really needs it. At 
least, it must never suffer for the w^ant of water. It largely d(>- 
pends on the nature of the soil, whether clay, sand, gravel or 
adobe, whether on the hillside or level ground, and on the nature 
of the plant, whether shallow or deep rooted. The top soil should 
never be permitted to bake, nor to be constantly muddy or sloppy. 
Nature rains and then gives sunshine. Where irrigation is used it 
is almost always a fact that the days are nearly all sunny ones 
and one of the dangers to avoid is sprinkling i)lants during the 
heat of the day. Nature never attempts the scalding process; she 
covers with a cloud and then sends her grateful shower. In the 
case of orchard irrigation or where water has to be run in furrows, 
it frequently, in fact most of the time, has to be done in the broad 
sunshine, but the effect is different as the water is seeking the 
roots of the plant and will reach where there is coolness and 
shadow, just as Nature intends. 

The pernicious eustoni of running water and flooding the 
garden or orchard, then leaving it until it dries hard, and turning 
on the water again and again, as often as the soil gets encrusted, is 
to be avoided. Air is needed in the soil. As soon as possible when 



32 GARDENHELPS 

the land is sufficiently dry after irrigation so there is no danger of 
making and leaving clods, cultivate or make the upper surface so 
it is left as a soft blanket to keep in the moisture below, prevent- 
ing the evaporation that would follow if the trenches or drills 
were left untouched to bake and dry to the roots again. It is 
waste of water, time and money to let the sun lick up the major 
portion of the moisture intended for the plant. When a plant is 
starting, it requires more water in pi-oportion to its size than after- 
ward. When a plant is blooming and preparing to 
set its fruit it must have water. W^hen a plant has 
formed its fruit and is preparing to ripen the crop 
(whether above or in the ground), water should be 
sparingly used. Shallow-rooted plants, especially strawberries, 
will want Avater at least every three days, as they are usually 
grown on sand, which dries quicker than clay soil. ]\Iuch depends, 
however, on the character of the subsoil and how far it is from 
the roots of the plant. If only a foot or less it will be very re- 
tentive of water, and if the surface is kept mulched the irrigations 
will be required not oftener than once a week. If it is sieve soil, 
like gravel, and the water goes out of sight almost as fast as you 
put it in, it will require for ordinary vegetables watering once a 
week or at most two weeks. You know how often we hear: "If 
we could only have a shower every two weeks." Well, just supply 
the shower after sundown, or if in the day time in a slow, soaking 
stream close by the rows. If you have an acre in vegetables, fruit 
and small fruits, there will hardly be a day when you will not see 
the need of the water working on some portion of the tract. 



How Much to Irrigate 

How much water you will use, again depends on the kind of 
plant you are raising. If it is alfalfa you will want ten times as 
much as if you were raising spineless cactus, globe artichokes or 
pie melons. There are but few of the vegetables that want an ex- 
cessive amount of water, and the rule as to how much is again 
governed by the quality of the soil for absorbing or retaining it. 
In past years it has been customary to use from one inch to an acre 
foot, according to supply, and quality of the land. An inch of 
water is practically 13,000 gallons running in a perpetual flow for 
24 hours. This has been in manv orchards sufficient for the needs 



GARDENHELPS 33 

of twelve year-dkl trees, but as the trees grow larger more is 
required and if eover crops are irrigated in, the amount is largely 
augmented. If you run nine gallons of water from a hydrant in 
a minute you are getting an ineh, or at the rate of an ineh of 
water. And a garden growing vegetables will require fully as 
nuieh water as the five-aere orchard the inch is supposed to amply 
supply. Shurt i-ows and slow streams are l)etter than long rows and 
cutting, fast streams that wear away the soil and run over the 
field and do not penetrate. The object should be to get the 
water into the soil rather than to see a stream run swiftly by. 
That does little other good tlian aggravate the plant by disai)point- 
ment. Use only as much as the plant needs in the soil to keep the 
understrata filled and permeable, so the roots can reach out and 
get the plant food yriu may have supplied. It is a nmtter of intel- 
hg(Mit judgment to keep the plant s;) it never wants, the soil so it 
is not overcharged with moisture and the surface so it will assist 
you in keeping moisture beneath, and help you reduce your water 
bills. Seventy-five thousand gallons per acre of garden, will be re- 
(piired. 

How to Irrigate 

Water is either piped to the land or tiows in cenuMit ditches. 
The means of distribution is by hose, l)y wooden tlumos and by 
open ditches through the garden or orchai'd. For many reas(nis 
the hose delivery is the most satisfactory, as it is tlie most direct 
and can lie run over the ground without wetting the entire sur- 
face tn liring up weeds. It depends largely, of coiu'se, on how 
closely you have trees and plants set whether the entire surface 
needs the application. If trees and plants eover the entire surface, 
the root system beneath needs tilling to meet the requirement of 
the plant. Again, the hose is convenient in the nuitter of turning a 
stream direelly on one point or tree for a considerable tinu'. And 
if you want to run water through a box containing nmnur(\ so as 
to li(|uify it. the hose can be put up over the liox ; also the water 
can })(' run up hill, and in many ways you can reach conclusions 
with th(' hose you could not with gravity water, as we call water 
running on the ground from a higher to a lower level point. 
Again, if your tract is not properly graded, you will find it dif- 
ficult to run gravity water over the hummocks. So, if you do not 
have water from a hydrant l\y force through a hose, you will have 



34 GARDENHELPS 

to grade the land so the water will flow in some one direction from 
the highest to the lower points. Basining. or making a ridge 
around a tree or a bed of plants, is sometimes practiced and is 
especially good if yon have gophers or insect enemies to drown 
oijt. Where water is abundant it is the custom to block out the 
entire surface in immense basins. You need to cover the entire 
ground in old orchards, and this generous supply will serve the 
orchard for a month or six weeks, even in the driest portion of the 
season, August and September. 

Water is often conducted in wooden flumes with gates set 
apart at suitable distances which can be opened by metal slides 
and for the entire distance small pencil streams can be run which 
make slow streams that thoroughly soak the ground. These 
flumes can be made permanent or so arranged -they can be taken 
up and laid aside while cultivation is in progress, either by horse 
or by haiul. 

By taking inch rubber hose and three-fiuarter-inch iron pipe, 
another system of irrigation that is convenient and satisfactory 
is obtained. Cut the one-inch hose into pieces about four or five 
inches long and then connect the iron pipes, which you can lay in 
any direction at any angle, even inclined slightly up- 
ward. Thus you may deliver water at any point 
within the distance you have length of pipe enough 
to connect. This is quite handy, as you can discon- 
nect the joints in a moment and deliver water at a nearer point 
along your line, if you so desire. If your land is not graded, you 
can lay the pipe to connect from one hummock to the other and 
water at any point you wish. The iron pipe is cheaper than hose ; 
is far more durable, as the pipe above ground Avill last a life- 
time and the only expense will be to occasionally get some new 
pieces of inch hose for the connections. Pieces of old three- 
quarter-inch hose will connect up half-inch pipe and give you a 
smaller stream. At the end of the piece of hose that is connected 
to the hydrant you will need to have threads put on a piece of 
three-quarter-inch pipe, and then you make your connection com- 
plete as far as you have lengths of pipe. In watering a canyon or 
hillside tract of several acres I have found the pipe plan very ser- 
viceable and saving of water, as it gave the opportunity of putting 
the water just where I wanted it without wasting it in open 
ditches. 



G A R D E N H E L P S 35 

A ilevice has rec-eiilly been invented by former Councilman 
Goklkamp, of the city of Han Diego, whereby he delivers water in 
force directly to the root of the tree, beneath the surface. The 
implement has a valve enclosed in a pipe which is forced into the 
ground, and when the water force is turned on it delivers the 
stream beneath the surface, no evidence of any water being seen 
above ground. When a tree or spot is sufficiently watered the 
machine is readily pulled up and set down in another place to re- 
peat its work. As a beneath-the-soil irrigator it has special ad- 
vantages in the matter of saving water and cultivation, as it does 
not disturb the sui'face of the ground. 

The pit system of irrigation is somelimes used on steep side- 
hills where it is difficult to even nuike contour ditches. (And here 
let nie say. never run water straight down a hill by the side of 
trees or plants. They sliould be set in the first place, so they can 
be watered l)y the contour system, which practically makes level, 
or nearly level, land of descending hillsides.) A pit in the center 
of a square of trees or.l)eds is made of sufficient size to hold 
several barrels of water and the water is run into these pits by 
any means you have at hand, either by gravity, or from a hose. 
The pit is tilled with water, then covered with brush, trimmings or 
debris of the orchard and the water permitted to soak down under 
the roots of the trees. By this method there is no washing of land 
and the pits are placed so the cultivator can avoid them. The 
surface is kept in a mulch and the water is secure from evapora- 
tion. It is a useful expedient in some steep hillside situations. 

If an alkali spot occurs in a new tract the best way to be rid 
of it is to nmke a drain. Hood the spot with water and wash it 
away. 

To ordinary land, a quarter of an inch per acre, based on the 
perpetual flow, or 3250 gallons each 24 hours, is sufficient for vege- 
tables, fruits and crops like carrots, beets and cabbage. Even this 
can be divided into one-half on retentive soils underlaid by clay 
that holds the water in the subsoil. 

The rapidity with which you can apply water by irrigation 
must be governed largely by the texture of the soil to admit it 
and allow it to spread down and through the upper soil. If it is 
stiff soil you will find it will require twice as long for the water 
to percolate through, as if it is sand, loam or gravel. 



36 GARDENHELPS 

The distance apart your eiop is planted, either in rows or hills, 
will s^overn the number of fiirroAvs you must make in order to till 
the soil or satisfy the requirements of the plants, and how thor- 
oughly you stir the soil after the flow of water has ceased and gone 
into the soil. 

It is best, if possible, to arrange to irrigate in short rows from 
opposite directions so it will meet in the center, rather than in the 
usual way of wasting your water in the run-otf at the end of the 
rows where it will do no gooti, unless you have trees at the edge 
of your tract that will be benefited by the water that runs from 
the irrigated rows. 

Excess of water washes away the plant food in the soil by 
"leaching" and taking it in light sieve soils down beyond the 
reach of the roots of the plant. Excess of w^ater often brings up 
alkali from tlie under soil, destroys the germinating quality of 
seed and erodes the tender plants. The only remedy in such a case 
will be to put on more water and wash out of the soil the alkali 
that has reached the surface; there must be good drainage to 
carry it otf or you will lodge the dangerous salts in some portion 
of the tract instead of ridding the soil of the difficulty. In such 
cases an "acre foot" of water is used, meaning as much water as 
would cover the acre a foot deep in w^ater. On a small tract the 
inch in perpetual flow would put 13,000 gallons on the surface in 
24 hours. 

Do not as a rule flood crops ; there are but few vegetables that 
will endure frequent flooding, even in destroying gophers and in- 
sects that congregate under the leaves of plants where you cannot 
reach them by any other means. Water should not be permitted 
to stand more than 24 hours, and less than that time is better, 
especially if the clay subsoil is but a short distance beneath. It is 
possible to drown plants with irrigation. 

If you must Hood crops, use the occasion when the sun is 
obscured. Do not sprinkle plants except when sun is obscured, 
and only as a means for refreshing the leaves and opening the 
pores, not as a sufficient plan of irrigation. Sprinkling tends to 
harden the upper crust of the soil and prevents aeration. It does 
not sufficiently open the soil beneath so the root system can spread 
with sufficient power to properly support the upper structure of 
the plant. 



GARDENHELPS 37 

The hotter the weather the more iimvise it is to cither eontiiiu- 
ally t1i)od the laiul or let it go iineultivated. 

Letting weeds grow in order to conserve nioistv.re is a 
delusion and a snare. The weeds sap more moisture than their 
shade tends to save. Rain treats all plants alike, l)ut irrigation 
gives you the opportunity to regulate the sum of w^ater needed to 
?uit the plant. You can segregate the plants that need less and 
water them according to their needs. Sorglium and kaffir corn 
would not want the amount of water celery does, hence you would 
put them in ditTerent sections of the tract and give them each 
their p.u-tion in due season. 

Irrigation is generall}' begun at the time when the winter rains 
have been nearly used up by the plants and you can tell by their 
appearance when they need a new supply. To constantly pour 
on Avater because you have an al)undant supply would be unwise, 
because you would sooii have a lot of sickly plants that by their 
yellowness would try to show you the error of your way. It is a 
greater mistake to use too much water than too little. The remedy 
for the latter condition can more easily be applied than the 
former, up to a certain stage. ^lost excellent crops are raised in 
the semi-arid regions without any irrigation, simply keeping the 
upper soil so loose and dust-like that it retains all the moisture 
beneath for the benefit of the plants; while excessive Hooding 
and no cultivation or stirring the soil is certain death to tlu^ plant. 

Irrigation can never be a substitute for cultivation and aera- 
tion, and is not a complete process any more than rain is in humitl 
sections, where the plow, cultivator and hoe must follow to sup- 
plement the action of the water received from the clouds. Irriga- 
tion rightly applied is superior to rain, in that it gives the 
gardener and farmer complete control of the amount, time of 
application and withholding, and the latter is often quite as 
essential as the application. Line head ditches with strips of 
cloth or gunny sacks and so completely control the How down the 
ditches without cutting. 



Importance of Cultivation 

Stirring the surface of the soil, especially as soon as possible 
after a rain or irrigation is necessary in order to assist in the de- 
velopment of the growing plant, and prevent disaster that would 
occur if the surface soil remained untouched after being beaten 



38 GARDENHELPS 

down by the rains or flooded from irrigation water. The effect 
of water is to compress and solidify the surface, all of which pro- 
cesses are antagonistic to the easy and healthful development of 
plant life. 

Not only does the plant require elements in the soil on which 
it can feed, but to make these of easy access after the water has 
done its work in moistening them so they will dissolve or liquify. 
An essential requisite is aeration, or the introduction of air in 
the soil, thus assisting the fil)rous root system of plants to more 
easily appropriate the stores of food residing beneath the surface. 

Cultivation prevents the hardening or baking of the soil at 
the surface by converting the surface into a mulch that acts 
equally as well as if the soil were covered with some extraneous 
material. It not only lets in the air. but prevents the escape of 
the moisture from beneath, which if left undisturbed would soon 
form a crust on the surface. By this means the plant would be 
retarded in growth from two causes: constriction of the soib 
packing firndy around it, preventing natural expansion, and dry- 
ing of the moisture from the surface roots of the plant. 

The beneiits of cultivation are so numerous and essential, so 
far reaching in effects, that a system of ''dry farming" has been 
protital)ly built up by successive cultivation which has produced 
unquestioned proiitable results. If the soil is so manipulated at 
the surface as to present a continual soft blanket or mulch, iu 
which one's feet will leave an indention, you may safely be assured 
that you are giving the crop the best of treatment, conserving the 
full benefit of the water applied. This dust soft covering can be 
obtained best with some implement like a harrow, drag-tooth 
cultivator or hack and rake in the garden. Any tendency to 
muddy or sticky condition must be avoided and the soil must be 
left entirely alone until the water has subsided and the top soil 
will easily fall apart in minute particles in the wake of the harrow 
or cultivator. 

ASPARAGUS. 

Napoleon raised the best asparagus in France, because he had 
the military stables of Versailles from which to draw his supply 
of plant food. The hint gives you the cue to the desire of this 
plant for abundance of rich manurial support. It will grow well 
on lands partly saline, in fact, if the soil does not contain consid- 
erable chloride of sodium (common salt, say half a pound to the 



GARDENHELPS 39 

square yard) it is liar(ll\- satisfied. An (ninee of seed will ^ive 
500 plants, it" sown in deep, rieh, loamy soil. The seed should he 
sown in drills a foot apait and not more than half an inch deep. 
When large enough transplant to rows three feet apart and two 
feet apart in the row. It has been the custom to allow the plants 
to be tAvo years old before cutting any of the tender shoots that 
are so highly esteemed. If you can purchase the roots two years 
old you liave advanced tlie time when you can begin to use from 
the plant by two years. A bed 15 by 40 will give sufficient supph' 
for an ordinary family. If planted as above ('^x2), it will require, 
to plant an acre, 7,200 roots. The roots are planted in California 
from November to ^larch. There are several named varieties: 
Conover's Colossal, Palmetto and the Bouldin's Island, the best 
of all, for tenderness and flavor, cond)ined with ease of culture. 
In sowing asparagus seed if is Avell to mix it with al)out 
fifteen parts sand; put seed and sand in a cracker box. pour on 
water to let it get well soaked, then you have prepared a loamy or 
peat made piece of soil; sow the seed and sand in the drills; 
make the drills four feet apart and the ditch a foot or less wide 
and sprinkle in the seed from the sand box as evenly as you can. 
Cover carefully with finelA- pulverized soil ; only about half an 
inch deep, and if the ground is in good, moist condition the plants 
will soon start. Keep weeds down. If you are giving field 
culture, and the row.s are four feet apart, it is easy to get through 
with the cultivator and give subsecjuent hoeing. As the plants in 
the depression grow, you graduall\- at each cultivation, after irri- 
gation, draw the earth about fhi^ Aoung plants. The garden plan 
is usually to make a trencli and till it nearly full with well- 
rotted manure; dig a second trench and throw the dirt from it 
into the one just filled with manure, so keep on till the whole is 
trenched and tlioroughly fertilized. Plant the asparagus roots 
in rows, set a stake so you know where you have planted them, 
and then you can occupy the gi-ound between with cabbages, car- 
rots and any vegetable you desire that will be out of the way by 
the time the asparagus is up and needs. the room. 

In the autumn, after the growth of the season has l)een made, 
all above ground should be cut away and burned, especially if 
there has been any indications of rust, a disease that is reduced to 
a minimum by timely use of Bordeaux Mixture. Another reason 
for removing the feathery foliage before it drops seed is, if the 



40 GARDENHELPS 

seed were permitted to grow it would spoil the bearing capacity 
of the bed. as it wovdd be filled with young plants that would sap 
the nutrition of the bed and make cutting difficult when the time 
came to sever the shoots for either table or market use. Aspara- 
gus is one of the most desirable of vegetables and should be more 
widely cultivated and not relegated to the table of the epicure 
alone. Asparagus bears in California from January to June and 
is a profitable crop. 

Artichokes 

The Jerusalem artichoke is used more for fattening swine 
than for the table of the family, though the potato-like tubers are 
very palatable and wholesome when prepared by a skilful cook. 
They grow best in sandy soil and being of the sunflower family 
delight in warmth and moisture. They are grown like potatoes, 
only you tui-n in the swine and let them do the digging. 

The Globe is quite different. It is a decidedly striking, orna- 
mental plant and the large purple flowers it sports place it in the 
class of the coarse and the showy. The flowers which are well set 
in the light olive grey foliage, were models in ancient Greece for 
architectural ornamentation. The plant is a striking figure in 
any landscape and can be used in landscape effects. The large 
buds, cut before any sign of opening to bloom, are boiled and the 
flakes of the bud removed singly. At the base of each is a small 
portion of delicious vegetable marrmv, the center being a solid 
mass of it, if it is taken before the change takes place which ad- 
vances it to the flowering stage; this is important as the buds 
if left till .just beginning to open are worthless for table use. It 
is a perennial. Sown in the spring, it will be ready for use by 
autumn ; sown in the autumn it will bloom the next summer. Sow 
seed in seed bed and transplant to rows 3 feet apart each way. 
Ft will stand considerable drouth, but if you wish good edible 
florets, water well. 

BEANS 

California is essentially a bean country. Ventura county 
sends beans to the antipodes, and there is no place where some 
one or two of the whole catalogue can not be used with generous 
results. (3f the dwarf or bush beans there are a dozen or more 
different sorts. The early ]\Iohawk, will stand more cool weather 
than any other bush bean, except the Windsor. The latter, though 
included in the bush varieties has a verj' distinct form. It grows 



GARDENHELPS 41 

\:v\l in the cool months, and when th(^ pods turn brown the ma- 
tured l)eans are fit to use, shelled like limas, making excellent 
strong food. In rich land they grow five feet high and produce 
pods all up the stalk. Burpee's Bush and Henderson's Bush are 
standards for sunuuer use. 

Beans should be sown or planted 2 inches deep, and 2 inches 
a part in the row in any good soil. If soil is sticky, always add 
sand, plaster, old i)laster composed of sand and lime, or lime if 
the soil is deficient in that element. The Wax or yellow podded 
varieties are desiraljle; there are some eight kinds of the wax 
lieai]s. including Ventura Wonder Wax, Black Kidney, Wardell's, 
Davis, and Golden AVax. One pound of seed will sow lOO feet 
of drills. If y;iu soak the beans before planting to accelerate 
Iheir germination l)e sure and plant in moist ground, for you will 
destroy the germ if you place them in dry drills. 

The pole or running l)eans comprise (juite a numerous family, 
including Kentucky Wonder Wax, and the King of the Garden 
Lima. Of the 8 sorts generally used, the Scarlet Runner is more 
desiral)le as an ornamental climber than as a bean for the table, 
though they bear (juite prolitically. 

The Broad Windsors are planted from September to January, 
the dwarf bush varieties from January to July, and pole beans 
from March to September. 

Beans sometimes are attacked by anthraenose or pod rust, 
or with mildew. Browu spots come on p ids and leaves for which 
use the all fungus remedy, Bordeaux mixture. For mildew (white 
powdery mould over the plant) use sulphur dry or made into 
spray with concentrated lye. Coal ashes mixed with kerosene 
and sown with either peas or beans will prevent the attack of 
the Bean bug or weevil. If on gathering your beans or peas for 
seed you discover the presence of the insects, put the seed in a 
closed vessel and submit it to a heat of 145 deg. Fahr. for an hour, 
or use bisulphide of carbon in an op(ni dish in tlie closed vessel 
when the fumes will kill all insect life. 

Beans can be started in a warm sheltered or covered place 
and then transplanted to the open Avhen the soil is warmed enough 
for them to grow rapidly. Soil should be kept moist ; the bean 
soon goes into a rapid decline if permitted to go dry. 



42 GARDENHELPS 

BEETS 

A man once coughed up a chunk of red substance which he 
declared to the doctor was a piece of his lung but his good wife 
relieved the puzzled physician by stating that they "lived on 
pickled beets." 

In California this is an all-the-year vegetable as there is no 
day in the year you cannot, if you wish, go to the garden and 
procure a supply. As in harvesting, so in sowing, there is no time 
when it is out of season to sow beets. This refers to the table and 
stock varieties; for sugar manufacture there are special seasons 
and special varieties to be grown on special soils that will con- 
duce to the highest per cent of sugar content. There are half a 
dozen similar sorts of early table beets, of the round Egyptian 
type, quick growers like Crosby's Egyptian. All of them are 
dark red except Bassino. which is light colored and early. The 
Long Blood is excellent for deep soil. Sow in drills at any time ; 
drills a foot or 15 inches apart ; thin to six inches apart in the row. 
The young beets make excellent "greens." Swiss Chard or Sea 
Kale is a member of the family but so distinct that it is not a 
beet at all as it has no bulb like the other beets. It is noted for 
the wide white tieshy midril)s of the leaves that make excellent 
greens or sweet pickle, Init most of all as a great forage producer 
for the poultry yard. The plant does not attain to its best until 
the second year, when the midribs can be served up like asparagus. 

Stock beets comprise the mammoth kinds, too coarse for table 
use, and can be sown from November to April in drills 3 feet apart 
thinned to a foot apart in the row. The Giant Half Sugar Rose 
Mangel has been known to yield as much as fifty tons to the acre. 
It is fine to feed to milch cows, imparting a sweet flavor to the 
milk and cream. Golden Tankard is a find beet not so large, but 
of fine quality ; Long Red and Yellow Globe are all medium sized 
and good stock feeders. All need deep rich soil, permeable so the 
roots will have no trouble in penetration. It takes six pounds 
of seed to the acre, generally costing about 20 cents per pound. 
Beets at a low estimate bring $5.00 per ton, and there is hardly 
a crop that brings such large returns for so small an outlay for 
seed. In sandy river bottom land they make immense roots. The 
Improved Imperial is largely grown to feed stock and is also 
counted in as a sugar beet representative but it has been super- 
ceded by Vilmorin's Improved White, Avhicli is valuable because 



GARDENHELPS 43 

of its richiu'ss in sugar content. Clean cultivation is essential aiul 
expert knowledge is recjuired to determine the degree of value 
in sugar content. 

Beets are sometimes trouliled with a fungus disease called 
(Cercos) or grey spots on the leaf, which if permitted to range 
undisturhed will destroy the entire plant. The remedy is early 
application of Bordeaux ^lixture. 

BROCCOLI. 

This is a sort of a renegade member of the cabbage family 
that tried to aj)e the manner of the Cauliflower. It is too slow 
in growth, as most people who desire a flowery cabbage prefer 
to raise cauliflower for it grows quicker and is Ijetter in flavor 
when it is grown. Broccoli cuts a snuill figure in the California 
produce market aiul is relegated to the plane in vegetable society 
along with the Kohlrabi (the turnip that fries to be a cabbage) — 
Brr.ssels sprouts, collards. chiv(^s and similar chicken provender. 

CABBAGE 

This im]>ortant vegetal)le is at honu' nn)st of the year in Cali- 
fornia, preferring to do its best, however, in the cool months and 
taking a brief summer vacation. Yet to keep a supply l)oth early 
and late there is hardly a month in the year when cabbage is not 
sown or transplanted. There are five chief early varieties of which 
Early Winningstedt takes the lead, followed by Early Wakefield, 
Eureka and Improved Early Summer. Henderson's Succession, 
Drumheads and Danish Ball Head are among the favorites and 
as their name implies succeed each other. An ounce of seed will 
produce 5000 plants. Sow ear]>' kinds in Sejitember. 

CAULIFLOWER. 

The cultivation of this plant is practically the same as for 
cabbage, it being a florescent cabbage. It is more sensitive to 
the warm weather and needs to be planted so it will attain its 
best between January and April. Dry Aveather Cauliflower, how- 
ever, matures when other varieties come short of making good. 
Henderson's Early Snowball, Nonpareil, Algiers and Autumn 
Giant are among the named sorts. If the planting has been de- 
ferred till late and the heads are not well formed when the sum- 
mer is advanced it will be helpful to skewer the long side leaves 
over the head to protect it from the sun, thus keeping the head 
crisp. 



44 GARDEN HELPS 

Diseases and insects that tri;ul)le the cabbage family are inci- 
dent to all alike and generally those that afflict ihe radish, turnip, 
mustard, collards, chives, kale, and kindred plants, all require 
similar treatment. The green aphis, cabbage louse, cabbage worm, 
flea beetles and Harlequin bug all visit the plants. In the cauli- 
flower all these enemies are most to be dreaded because the insects 
conceal themselves in the florescence making it extremely diiScult 
to dislodge them. At the first appearance use brine water- or hot 
water up to 112 deg., burn tar paper under the plants, dust on 
pyrethrum; or knock them o& with force of water from the hose. 
Avoid if p'.)ssil)le using any poison especially on cauliflower. From 
cabbage the outer leaves can all be stripped oflf before the cab- 
bage is used. For the cabbage root maggot which works at the 
root of the plant, use bi-sulphide of carbon, prodding a hole in the 
soil near the root but not close to it, pour in half a teaspoonful of 
the liquid and close the hole quickly. The vapor diffuses through 
the soil and destroys all insect life near it. either worms or mag- 
gots. The Harlequin bug, a calico colored, orange spotted insect 
half an inch long that feeds on the plant, is best caught by decoys. 
Ijay around pieces of boards, gunny sack or something they can 
hide under, gather them up and burn them. If cabbage show 
signs of ''club root" — contortion or swelling of the stump and 
roots, — which attacks allied plants, burn the first plant you see 
showing any signs of the disease. Lime the soil. Lime is not only 
the warden of the soil unlocking elements the plant needs that are 
locked away from it, but it is also a corrective of snur soil and soil 
fungus and destroys soil insects that prey on the roots of the plant, 
^lost of our California soils except the marls and mealy adobes 
are deficient in lime and the addition will in nearly every instance 
be beneficial. 

The novelties in the cabbage family are the Savoy, giving 
curious curved and crimped leaves, but of excellent flavor. The 
Autumn King is the giant and produces enormous heads of great 
weight and is among the late-growing sorts. INIammoth Eed Rock 
is the largest pickling cabbage, has solid heads and deep red color. 
Sow seed in beds or boxes, transplant to rows, 2 feet apart, 
12 to 18 inches apart in the row according to size. 

CARROTS 

The carrot is a thrifty Californian and has an abiding value 
that is represented by hardly any other vegetable, because if 



GARDENHELPS 45 

the drouth eoiiu's on it just simply stops and rests till the rains, 
or timely irrig'ation lielps it to till out the measure of its life. 
The seed is very fine and therefore cannot be covered deeply nor 
sown too thickly, thoug'h young carrots are, as well as the lops, 
relished hy fowl. One ounce of seed will be sufficient for 150 
feet of drills. The soil should be moist, free from lumps and kept 
iniiformly damp until the seed germinates, which recpiires only 
a few days. 

There are ten or more varieties from the Early Short Horn, 
which represents the shallow soil grower, to ^Mastodon the heaviest 
carrot grown, yielding more tons of feed for stock, than any otlier 
carrot, white and sweet and relished by both cows and horses. It 
is not important, when yi.u can raise a crop at any time, that you 
select the very earliest — French Forcing — but the Ox Heart aiul 
Danvers Half Long are snitable for any depth of soil. The Large 
White Belgian is grown exclusively for stock and is useful to mix 
with the dry rations for any domestic animal. In two months 
from sowing small carrots can l)e obtained; and to have them crisp 
and of good Havor they should be evenly watered. The winter 
season is the linn^ to make the largest crop. If raised for poultry 
the tops can l)e cut several times and will be as often renewed. 
By the time you begin cutting the last row the first will be almost 
ready to cut again. One ounce of scimI sows 150 feet in drills. 
Sow thinly in drills 15 inch(^s apart; thin to 5 or 6 inches in the 
row. 

CHERVIL 

This is one of the unnsual plants, an aromatic herb, liked l)y 
some to flavor suu.ps. It is raised in the cool months, sown from 
September to June. Sow seed in open ground as you would onions. 

CHIVES 

This is really a good border plant for edging in the vegetable 
garden. The leaves have an onion flavor and are used in soups. 
Of no commercial value and rather a novelty, its room can be 
much better occupied, vudess used as an ad.junct to an orderly 
arrangement. It can be left in clumps indefinitely and the leaves 
used as wanted. 

CIBOULE 

Here is another not very usefid plant and where good onions 
can be raised with i)roflt. the "Welsh" Onion is not needed. 
Cultivate same as onions from seed. Of no commercial value any 



46 GARDENHELPS 

more than their cousins the Shallots, and all of them are not so 
good as leeks. They need no cultural directions as there is little 
incentive for growing them except the novelty of having one more 
variety in the garden. 

CHICKORY 

The only kind to grow, if one wishes to raise a substitute for 
coffee, is the Large Rooted Magdenburg. It is used in the adul- 
teration of coffee and the leaves ai-e liked by some as a salad. 
It has little commercial value and is prominent among plants for 
being distasteful to army worms- The leaves, used to cover other 
plants, make resistance and partial protection. 

COLLARDS 

This plant of the cabbage family is used by some as a sub- 
stitute for cabbage. It has a tall stem covered with miniature 
rosettes that have the flavor of the cabbage. It is known as 
Creole or Georgia Collards and furnishes an excellent supply of 
green feed for poultry. 8oAvn in the cool months from February 
to May it is preferred to wrinkled kale for green feed for chickens. 
Sow and treat the same as cabliage. 

CRESS 

Really a window garden relish, can be sown in a bowl and 
set in the window and in a few days you can cut it off close to 
the soil and have a delicious salad, or relish like lettuce. Pepper 
grass is its other name, as it is really a warm member of the vege- 
table family. Sow it very thickly. Write your name in the soil 
and carefully sow the seed and, if kept moist, in four days it will 
be up and your signature plainly set in the soil green and verdant. 
You can repeat the sowing and if you only have a wnndow and a 
bowl of soil you can have a growing garden in your room. 

Entirely distinct is Water Cress which delights to fill up a 
bubbling spring or a running stream of shallow water. Like its 
little name-sake, it is used as j-ou would lettuce. It is altogether 
an aquatic plant and seed sown by the waters mhII give you re- 
turns for years to come, if properly cut and preserved. 

CORN SALAD 

This plant is sown in the wet months and used as lettuce which 
it resembles. Some kinds are disposed to make heads, but it has 
never filled the place of good well-grown lettuce. It is in the 
substitute list and of Italian origin and preference. 



GARDENHELPS 47 



CELERY 



Celery is one of the import;! nt prodiiets of California. Any- 
where on moist, partly peat land it can l)e grown to best advant- 
age, as is done on the peat lands of Orange eonnty. There are 
river bottoms adjoining the sea in San Diego and other counties 
that can be sneeessfull\' used. Hut celery can be raised in any 
good permeable garden soil provided the important consideration 
is met: It mnst be kept n)oist. as the plant is of semi-a(inatie origin 
and if deprived of a sufficient amount of water to keep it advanc- 
ing rapidly it soon runs to seed. It is most successfully grown in 
the winter and autumn months, endures very well any frosts that 
may come in interior valleys, ])ut does not staiul the heat well 
enough to make its culture jirotitable in the summer months. 
Ordinary garden soil can b{» well adapted by a liberal supply of 
well rotted inanure and b^ the aid of deep digging and trenching 
similar to work done in a:-pai*agus culture. 

Celery is sown in a seed bed and transplanted. The seed is 
small but not hard to germinate, if it is kept in equal temperature 
never sodden, never dr\-. Cover seed lightly because it is small 
and will not come through a heavy load of soil. Sow in a seed l)ed 
and when the plants are uji thin to aI)out one plant to the square 
inch. When they are three inches high, clip off the tops about 
half way; and when they get four inches or more high clip l)ack 
again. This is to give root jxjwer. Keep moist and in about a 
week or ten days transplant carefully without disturbing the 
roots, taking a good chiudv of soil with them, to the shallow furrow 
you have previously prepared. Set al)out six inches apart. A 
wooden dibble to drive down and pull out is a good tool for mak- 
ing the hole to put the plant in. Put it doAvn straight and firm 
the soil well around the plant before you leave it. Keep the soil 
aAvay from the plant instead of drawing it up to it until it is a 
foot and a half high. Then ]iull the earth up to the stalks to 
blanch or whiten them. The Chinaman wraps strips of gunny 
sack around the plants to blanch them. It takes about three 
weeks to satisfactorally blanch the White Plume variety. 

There should be four cool months in which to grow the celery. 
Commercially it is harvested aiul sent east in the winter so the 
seed should be sown so as to nu-et the Thanksgiving and Christmas 
demand. To do this, it must be sown in summer, sav August, and 



48 GARDENHELPS 

must in hot locations be shaded till it has firmly established itself; 
and abinidaut moisture must be applied. 

An ounce of seed will produce 8,000 plants or sow about 200 
feet of rows. IMix the seed with fine sand when you sow it or 
you will get it too thick. Set the plants six inches apart in the 
row and keep well cultivated or hoed. If you bleach it with 
boards, set wide ones on edge and with a wire staple and hook 
1o hold them apart and together. A crate is made to hold ten 
bunches, a dozen in a bunch. If plants are small it will take more, 
as the size regulates the bunch. A fair field of celery will yield 
20,000 plants to the acre. 

In hot weather and in dry places celery is subject to leaf 
liliglit and sun scald, leaves turning yellow and brown. It seldom 
comes if the celery is on moist land. Spray with Bordeaux early 
in the season and repeat later. 

Celery belongs to the same family as parsnip, carrot, parsley, 
dill, anise and caraway. The varieties most used are Golden Self 
Blanching, White Plume ' and Pink Plume. The Golden Self 
Blanching is the favorite. 

CELERIAC 

This is a turnip-rooted celery and has tried to imitate the 
turnip-rooted cabbage kohlrabi. It can be gathered and stored 
like any root crop and gives you celery in slices in the winter. 

Sow seed as for Celery. Plant in rows 2 feet apart and 8 inches 
in the row. No blanching or earthing up is required as the roots 
are the edible part. Keep roots in cool place, when stored, and 
cover with straw. Ltmg smooth Prague is a standard kind. 

CARDOON 

This is a plant strongly resembling the glol)e artichoke except 
that it attains a much larger growth. The edible portion is the 
mid-rib of the leaf and stem and not the flower bud- It takes 
six months from seed to maturity and near the close of its growth 
the leaves are gathered up, covered and blanched and the whole 
plant, root and all, is used as a vegetable. It is not much in favor, 
though some esteem it a delicacy. It takes four months to mature 
plants. It grows best in cool weather. 

CAPERS 

"Cutting capers" can be actually accomplished if you get 
one or two of these ornamental vegetable plants. The buds are 



GARDENHELPS 49 

hand picked and used for piekles. jusl as gherkins ean be gathered 
from the nasturtium. The eaper is a novelty and ean be grown 
anywhere along the eoast. Like many other plants it may be 
grown in boxes and multiplied l)y cutting. As many other novel- 
ties it has not attained connnercial i-ecognition. 

CORN 

While California is not a corn state there ean be corn grown 
for a longer period of the year tlian in any other state in the I'nion, 
Sweet corn can be had from June to January if planted in suc- 
cession. In many portions of the state the tii'st planting is in 
March and it can be continued till Hepteml)er. Corn matures in 
75 days and the roasting ears in 60 days, if the right kinds are 
planted. The standard kinds are PLii-]y Minnesota, Black ^lex- 
ican. Country Gentleman, StowelTs Evergreen and Golden Ban- 
tam. Sown thickly in drills coi-n makes most excellent fodder 
t'oi' milch cows. One j)ound will i»lant KM) hills. 8 pounds an acre, 
3 feet apart each way. Field varieties in the interior valleys 
bring si)lendid crops on subirrigated land, and on any good moist 
land if planted early in ]March. Worms are tlie enemy, the same 
worm that afflicts the tomato. 

Planting successive crops closely together as regards time is 
a method of minimizing the ravages of the worms. The moth 
deposits its eggs in the silk, and the larva crawls into the ear 
and often makes sad Avork. If they get in the early crop, cut it 
up and feed it bodily to the cow and the next oiu'oming corn will 
be comparatively free liecause the worms have been destroyed, 
l^oth field corn and pop corn suffer less than the sweet garden 
varieties from the ravages of the worms. When Agricultural 
Science is taught in our schools, there will be less time dcn-oted 
to baseball and nuH-e to the lucrative employment of catching the 
moth that annually destroys thousands of dollars worth of corn! 
If the moth were hunted half as vigorously as the dove, meadow 
lark and quail, there would soon be corn crops raised as perfect 
as any in the United States, as there is no place where the season 
is so well adapted as in our interior valleys. The earliest dent 
corn is the Improved Leaming. The Ilominy, eight rowed white 
flint has been a favorite. Three successive crops can be raised for 
table use and two or more for fodder. Sto well's Evergreen is as 
useful as any for that purpose. 



50 GARDENHELPS 

One poimd of seed will plant 100 hills- Corn is planted in 
hills 3 feet apart each way, or in drills 3 feet apart and plants 
6 inches apart. 

CUCUMBERS 

An onnce of seed will plant 100 hills. If wanted very early, 
seed can be sown in Febrnary in hollowed-out tnrnips, beets, 
strawberry boxes, tiower pots and raised nnder shelter or by a 
warm window or under a cloth frame, and put out in the open as 
early as the ground is warm. If raised entirely under cover they 
Avill have to be poUenized by hand with a small camel's hair pencil, 
as there are no bees or insects to carry the pollen, nor wind to 
blow it from the anthers of the staminate bloom to the pistillate. 

About 8 seeds in the hill may be planted, but only half of 
these should be left if good strong plants are wanted. Roots 
crowded too closely together struggle for existence. If you put 
manure in the hills before planting, be sure it is well rotted, 
otherwise it will absorb all the moisture the plants should have. 
The Early White Spine is one of the best for table use ; Improved 
Long Green is a standard; Boston Pickling is a cluster cucumber. 
A good crop is reckoned at 150,000 cucumbers to the acre. From 
seed to maturity requires 60 to SO days. 

The cucumber, like most of the cubierate family, is subject 
to blight and mildew. For the blight, a disease that causes the 
entire vine to droop and die, there is no known remedy but to 
pull up the plant and prevent further infection. Mildew is cured 
and prevented in the early stages by liberal use of sulphur and 
spray with ammoniated carl)onate of copper solution. 

A double brood of pickle worms, will try to destroy the vines 
and the caterpillars must be hand picked. The Diabrotica punc- 
tata, a yellow spotted beetle, feeds on the leaves as does its com- 
panion the striped cucumber beetle (Diabrotica vitata)- To pre- 
vent attack, use small boxes covered with cheese cloth, when 
plants are young; covered with these protectors the insects do 
not reach them. The following repellants are useful: ashes, lime, 
plaster, fine road dust, air slacked lime, plaster and kerosene 
mixed to a powder, or tobacco powder. Apply remedies every 
two or three days when dew is on and be sure and reach under 
side of leaf. To kill the beetle use any of the arsenites mixed with 
flour dusted on and around the plant. See remedies. 



GARDENHELPS 51 

DANDELION. 

« 

In California this is an obnoxious plant nearly everyboily is 
trying to exterminate, but some people want a change of "greens" 
and so let it grow. We have so many much safer and better 
plants for the purpose (spinach, kale, beets. New Zealand spinach 
among the liest) that mustard and dandelion become easily ob- 
noxious weeds hard to eradicate if once established. 

EGG PLANT. 

One ounce of seed will produce, under favorable conditions, 
2000 plants. Tt requires strong uniform heat to germinate the 
seed, in finely pulverized, warm soil. Plant in April, June and 
July. Treat aboiit as you do tomatoes 3 feet apart each way and 
give support with frames. The egg plant likes to be near the 
hydrant and if it receives water most of the time it shows its 
gratitude by increased size of fruit- The New York Spineless is 
early and free from spines. Black Pekin bears large round deep 
purple frnit ami the Early Long Purjile is fairly good. 

Egg plant requires 160 days to mature, with most of the days 
warm, and is content with yielding about half a dozen fruits to the 
])lant. It, too. has an enemy, the potato beetle, and the arsenites 
must be applied before fruit appears and again before it is large 
enough to pick. It belongs to the solanaceous family of plants 
like the potato, tomato, pepper, husk tomato, belladonna and night- 
shade. The genus to which it belongs contains from 700 to 900 
species. It is very nutritious made into patties and the slices 
fried make a good substitute for meat. To .start the seed well 
it is wise to sow it in boxes and put the boxes where they can 
have heat at the bottom from a manure pile, or other source. All 
its life it desires heat and moisture and detests drouthy conditions. 

ENDIVE. 

This plant is not used largely by our American people but 
esteemed highly by French, German and Italian residents. It is 
similar in habits to the curled lettuce. Sow in ordinary soil in 
drills one foot apart covered lightly. When 2 inches high, thin 
to about 12 inches apart in the row and when the plant has at- 
tained its full size gather up the outer leaves and tie them over 
the center of the plant. This excludes the air from the inside 
and blanches it in a few weeks. It is a hardy plant and can be 
had all the year. The Staghorn, a curled variety is chiefly used 



52 GARDEN HELPS 

and the l)road leaved Esearolle is also planted. One ounce of seed 
will sow 150 feet of drills. 

GARLIC. 

This plant, as well as leeks is an inferior sort of onion and 
but moderately used. In fact, both are plants on which moder- 
ation can be used Avith no danger of violating the rules of pro- 
priety. Culture for both is about the same as for the onion, re- 
quiring about the same rich soil and growing in the cool months. 
The garlic is usually grown from sets in rows 18 inches apart and 
6 inches in the row. Plant in Decemlier. 

HORSERADISH. 

This plant needs partial shade and moisture and does not 
thrive in dry situations. Back from the coast, better results may 
be expected, though good sized roots are grown if the native en- 
vironment of the plant is partially supplied. It is a perennial 
plant and does not attain its full size in one year, the roots con- 
tinuing to enlarge with age. It is classed with the Cruciferae fam- 
ily with about 2000 other species. Turnip, radish and mustard 
are near relatives and the stock, alyssum and wall floAver are 
among the ornamental plants of the group. The horseradish de- 
lights in deep rich soil, shade and moisture. Use small roots, 
planted two feet apart in rows two feet apart. 

KALE OR BORECOLE. 

This plant is nmch used for feeding poultry. It is sown in 
beds then set out like cabbage thinned in the row a foot apart. 
The dwarf curled is excellent for early use. It grows in the cool 
months and can be planted from August to January. The Jersey 
cow kale grows from 6 to 8 feet high and is for stock and poultry 
especially. The "Sea Kale" or Swiss chard is called kale; it be- 
longs to the beet family but is used for the same purposes as the 
other kales; it is a perennial and needs two years to bring it to 
perfection. An ounce of seed Avill produce 2000 plants. The Si- 
])erian curled kale is very (U-namental as Avell as useful. It is of a 
bluish green tinge and like scarlet beets can be used in color ef- 
fects or masses of color if desired. 

LETTUCE- 

There is no more satisfactory garden plant than lettuce, in 
Calif(U'nia. Lettuce sown on moist ground will give returns the 



G A R D E N H E L P S 53 

year round aiul the suiprises eouie when there is litth:- in the 
market. After taking ont the winter garden, soak the gronnd 
and pnt in lettiiee, or after the summer garden repeat the opera- 
tion. It is an ever ready plant if it has the right treatment, whieh 
means rieh soil and ph'nty of water. In summer sow h'ltnce on 
the shatly side of large vegetables that must be irrigated and it 
receives the shade and moisture needed. The eabliage varieties 
are preferred and the Improved Large Passion — ])la(dv seeded— 
produces large solid white heads. There are fifteen or more va- 
rieties. Among the best are Boston Market and Paris White Cos. 
Royal Summer stands heat much better than some of the loose 
headed ones. An ounce of seed will give 2000 plants if sown in 
the open drill in light rich soil. For clay soil mix in sand and lime. 
Thin to from 8 to ^2 inches apart. Sown every three weeks. Im- 
proved Hanson is one of the very best and seldom is afflicted with 
bitterness. Cover the seed very lightly or it will not get through, 
especially if a crust is permitted to form, however slight. Nip 
out seed s'alks early. 

MELONS. 

]\lusk melons, cantclonpes and water melons are all consid- 
ered under this head. California soil and climate l)ring all of tlu'm 
to the acme of perfection. An ounce of seed will plant nearly 
100 hills, and 2 pounds an acre, in hills 6 feet apart each way. The 
green fleshed and netted skinned varieties are distinct from the 
smooth and ribbed musk melon. The former are found in the 
Rocky Fords. Ilackensacdw and Nutmegs. ]Most of them are 
round but Champion ]\Iarket is slightly elongated, is one of the 
very sweetest and has light green flesh. The Rocky Ford is in- 
clined more to the oval shape and is a favorite in the home garden. 
The musk melon cannot endure lack of water as well as the water- 
melon and will die where the watermelon will continue to struggle 
on till the rains come. All melons delight in warm sand}' soil or 
light clay loams but if planted in stiff soils should have some sand 
and lime added in the hills. JManure in all soils should be added 
or rather have been put in a considerable time before planting, 
unless you are in a position to add liquid manure, whieh is im- 
mediately available to the plant. As with the cucumber, the seed 
can be planted in boxes or scooped out turnips, beets or any re- 
ceptacle and that will hold soil. You can get the plants started in 
February and keep them from the cold winds under a cloth or 



54 G A R D E N H E L P S 

lath cover till the ground is warm euoug:h for them to make vig- 
orous growth. A pile of fresh horse manure spread out Hat, ahout 
a foot deep on which you can set the boxes containing the seed 
will give "bottom heat" and push the plants ahead. From sum- 
mer planting as late as July you can expect good returns, as it 
requires only 150 days from time of planting to ripening, if the 
plants are kept growing. A speciality is the new Cassaba variety, 
which is best sown late. When at full size pick the melon from 
the vine and store it away in a cool place and it will ripen and 
keep good till the holiday times, from November to January. 
Much is lost by letting the vines of all melons grow too long be- 
fore pinching them back, which should be done when the vines are 
about one foot long. This strengthens the growth of the vine, 
makes it branch and causes the fruit to mature some days earlier. 

It takes more seed in weight to plant the same number of hills 
of the watermelon ; an ounce will only plant 30 hills and it will 
take 4 pounds to plant an acre. The hills should be wider apart 
than the canteloupes and musk melon, or at least ten feet each 
way according to the kind used. Plant seed in well prepared 
mellow hills in any good soil. Do not place dry manure in the 
hills ; use only well rotted decomposed manure, finely mixed with 
the soil. If rough manure is used it should only be for mulching 
to keep the hills from drying out. There are more than a dozen 
named watermelons : Cannon Ball, Kleckley Sweet, Rattlesnake, 
Dixie, Cuban Queen, Cole's Early are among the best. Mammoth 
Ironclad has a thin, but very tough, rind and is a good shipper, as 
is Cannon Ball. 

The diseases of melons, particularly the Cuban, are as follows: 
mildew, (Plasmopara Cubensis), gives the leaf a violet frost-like 
appearance and is cured on the first appearance by plentifully 
spraying the vines on top with Bordeaux and turning them up and 
spraying the underside. Watermelons are afflicted with anthrac- 
nose or pod rust of the bean. Wilt, watermelon disease, makes 
the vine suddenly wilt and die. It is a disease of the vessels of 
the stem and is most serious, as the only cure is to pull up the 
vines, burn them, lime the soil and plant again in another spot. 
Melon aphis causes the vines to have a greasy appearance, to 
blacken and soon die. Spray with hot water or kerosene emulsion ; 
or put small tub or tent over the vine, then put in a small dish of 
bi-sulphide of carbon and close tightly with earth at the bottom 



GARDENHELPS 55 

so that no vapor can escape and the carbon will kill all insect life 
and not injure the plant. Use a spoonful to a vine two feet in 
circumference. Squash bugs, cucumber beetles and melon worms 
will all be destroyed by this metiiod if used carefully. A small 
tig'ht tent not more than a foot high can be made to cover the 
vines and a man will in a day cover a large space and kill all in- 
sects. If the melon root \vorm is w^orking in the soil use unslacked 
lime. Spade in a short distance from the roots, and then apply 
water. The bi-sulphide of carbon will destroy insects in the soil 
if jout in a hole made with a sharp pointed iron or stick, say size 
of picket pin. l*nt the carl)on in several holes around any plant 
and close with wet dirt. Cut worms, white grubs and wire worms 
all meet the same fate. The carbon used too strong will also de- 
stroy the plant. The pie melon or as it is called in the east, 
''citron" is nsed for stock and will resist more drouth than any 
member of the family. Large crops are raised in unirri gated dis- 
tricts, if planted where the natural drainage gives mellow soil and 
under moisture. The same plan as with cucumbers can l)e used in 
protecting the yonng vines from ravages of the striped diabrotica, 
by using cigar boxes covered with mos(]uito bar or cheese cloth. 
Poultry enjoy a melon as an increase in the variety of food, and 
thus augment the egg suj^ply. 

MUSHROOMS. 

If you can, get good spawn (seed). Bnt much of it is shipped 
in and is devitalized largely in crossing the desert, for it can- 
not be subjected to long dry spells, or short ones either of unusual 
heat. The mushroom grows in the showery days of spring and 
hides away when the clouds fail to give it shelter. From this you 
can understand the conditions best suited to its growth and de- 
velopment. If you have a shed, cellar or stable where you can 
keep the temperature at a range from 50 to 70 and reasonably 
moist and if you have good spawn, you can raise mushrooms. Get 
some good soil from the cowyard or from under the trees and mix 
this well with an equal amount of horse manure. ]\Iake a frame of 
boards a foot and a half deep, and 4 feet wide (like the florists 
makes their benches only deeper). Pour in a thin layer of the com- 
pounded soil and pound it down hard, repeat this until you have a 
foot or a foot and a half deep. This wnll heat so you cannot bear 
your hand in it. When the temperature gets down to 75 Fahr. 
(but not below 50) iireak off pieces of the spawn (it is in cakes 



56 GARDENHELPS 

like large yeast cakes) and after making holes about 2 inches deep 
and six inches apart, put in the seed and cover with loamy soil 
and again beat down evenly and firmly. If the temperature is 
kept right with no cold drafts and with a little sun from above 
in about six weeks you may expect mushrooms and the bed will 
bear for about 30 days. Then renew the bed with an inch of fresh 
soil, moisten with water, cover with some rough litter and wait 
for the second crop. In the meantime you can be preparing other 
beds to begin bearing w^hen the first are about done. Keep the 
room as near like a showery day in spring as you can,' moist, not 
too warm, with a little sunshine and lots of patience. The English 
spawn comes in pressed bricks weighing about 20 ounces and sells 
for $1.25 a pound. French spawn is a little cheaper. Write to 
the Agricultural Department, Washington, D. C, for the free 
bulletin on Mushroom growing. A pound of spawn will plant 10 
feet square. 

OKRA OR GUMBO. 

This is one of those vegetables not generally used but grow- 
ing in favor. It does not take kindly to dry situations and gard- 
eners consider that better vegetables ought to have the water it 
demands. It is easy of cultivation as it does not seem to be par- 
ticular about soil. Plant about 2 inches deep in drills two and a 
half feet apart and when well estal)lished thin to a foot apart. It 
is a sun plant and wants the warm mmiths and about the same 
treatment as egg plant; liberal warmth and abundant moisture. 
Long Green and White Velvet are the two varieties grown. It is 
used to thicken soups, principally. 

ONIONS. 

One of the most important and remunerative vegetables 
grown in California. The crop is produced both from seed and sets 
(which are small seedlings that have been pulled when about like 
small marbles). An ounce of seed will sow 100 feet in drills; 6 
pounds will plant an acre. It Avill pay to have the soil very clean 
from weeds, let them all come up and turn them under and rake 
the soil well before sowing the seed and you will save a lot of 
back aching work weeding them out. To soav the seed, mix it 
wdth sand, wet the sand, let it stand overnight, or until the seed 
begins to swell, then sow in shallow drills about one foot apart, 
cover lightly and keep from drying out by keeping a slow stream 



GARDENHELPS 57 

of water runiiitijj:. Onion culture requires deep rich, loamy or 
sarid^' soil ( the river beds in California generally furnish excellent 
provisions in soil material). You can hardly make the soil too 
rich as the onion is a gross feeder. 

Sow seed as early as Pel^ruary so the crop can get well estab- 
lished before warm weather comes. The plants should begin to 
appear in about 6 or 8 days, and if you have a wheel hoe it will 
be very usef\d at the stage when the small weeds appear (purslain 
generally comes). Cut the soil away from the rows first, then 
after they are larger reverse and throw toward them or give level 
cultivation. The dirt sliould never be thrown on the bulb of the 
plant. If you prefer the seed bed plan you will sow your seed 
in a bed and transplant to the open rows you have prepared and 
enriched before hand. The transplanting method gives more uni- 
formity in size of bulbs and a larger per cent of large onions. 
When the plants are growing from seed you cannot tell which are 
runts and should be discarded. 

Some growers make a seed bed over a l)ed of horse manure, so 
as to f(n-ce the seed ahead for early transplanting, sowing from 
September to Pel)ruary. Seed in bed are sown broadcast and 
when pressed down, covered with some mulching or cloth to pre- 
vent drying, and watered through the light covering. The cov- 
ering is to protect the l)ed from washing by rains as well as to 
conserve the moisture. Warm, light soils bring the crop forward 
most rapidly. When moved from the seed bed the plants are 
lifted with a shovel ; separated, top and roots shortened about 
one-half and then dropped in the prepared rows and set with 
dibble three inches apart and the soil well firmed around them 
(a most important matter in all transplanting to keep out dry 
wind and to retain moisture). The cost of growing a crop from 
seedlings and then transplanting is more than growing from sets, 
but weeding and thinning rows from seeds in the field, add to the 
cost of cultivation. 

Some onions produce "top onions" or sets instead of seed and 
should be planted 8 to 10 inches apart in the row^ and rows 2 feet 
apart. Let the sets get well dried and then store them in a cool 
place, not in a deep pile. It is risky to place in sacks or l)arrels, 
where they are apt to mould in damp weather. Plant sets in Peb- 
ruary in rows a foot apart. If you cannot make straight rows 
without, use the garden line. When they are up well, spread a 



58 GARDENHELPS 

top dressing of well-rotted manure over them, just before a rain if 
you can strike it. Thin out for use and leave the rest far enough 
apart to grow large onions, some for winter use and some for more 
sets. You can make "])ottnm sets" by sowing seed thickly and 
when they are al)Out the size of marbles pull up and dry thorough- 
ly and store in a cool place till you want to plant again. If you 
sow seed as often as you plant the sets you will have a succession. 

The principal varieties are Bermuda, Australian Brown, Large 
Red Wethersfield and Prizetaker (a beautiful yellow onion). 
Large IMexican grows to weigh 6 pounds. Yellow Cracker is an 
onion that matures quickly and is desirable for early culture. The 
White Bermuda is also an early favorite. White Portugal (silver 
skin) is a good keeper and fine for the garden. Six hundred 
bushels per acre is a large crop. 

Onion diseases: Rust (leaves turn yellow and plant wilts and 
dies) comes from soil infection. Rotate crop and burn all diseased 
onions. Black smut kills first the leaf and the death of the whole 
plant follows. Drill in sulphur and lime, about an ounce of the 
mixture to a fifty foot drill. The onion maggot, much like the 
cabl)age maggot, feeds at the roots. Lime the soil and use bi- 
sulphide of carlion by piercing holes in the soil, pouring in the 
liquid and closing hole so it will penetrate the surrounding area. 
Chives, Ciboule and Shallots are all onion flavored plants not 
much used but raised like onions. 

PARSLEY. 

Grown much the same as lettuce, parsley makes a fine border 
plant in the garden. It is used both as a salad and as a garnish 
and is especially useful made into tea as a specific for urinary 
troubles and is properly classed with the members of the herb 
garden. It desires rich soil and plenty of water. It is ornamental 
as well as useful but by no means can be classed as having much 
commercial demand. Sow in drills 1 foot apart, cover seed Vl' an 
inch, thin to 4 inches. 

PARSNIP. 

This useful vegetable needs deep permeable soil and prefers 
the cool months and can be planted from August to January. It 
resents being placed in shallow, hard, soil, but responds with 
liberal quantity and quality in the right location. Sow in rich soil 
in drills 18 inches apart. The seed being small must not be cov- 



GARDENHELPS 59 

ered more than half an inch deep. When they eonie up, thin to 
8 inches apart. Tlie Long i^inooth and Student are the two varieties 
of standard growth and used either for tield or garden. The in- 
sects that occasionally trouble it must be treated to arsenites- 
(Paris green aiid tlour, one part green to 20 parts tiour, dusted on 
the plant for the Avorms to eat.) It has often been said that pars- 
nips need to be frozen to give them the required flavor, but this is 
a mistaken idea as far as California is concerned, and fine flavored 
parsnips raised in rich deep sandy soil not one-fourth of a mile 
from the salt water are very line in size, texture and flavor. 

PEAS. 

Both for garden and fleld culture, the pea is an all-tlie-year 
crop and is planted during every month of the year, l^ut it is more 
productive in the cool months and less liable to mildew. It is an 
ever present crop if rightly managed, though in hot interior lo- 
cations it is not so profltable. It prefers light frost to drying heat, 
and will endure more of the cold than of the heat, so the sum- 
mer crop should be planted where it can, if possible, have the 
protection of sliade from the hqt afternoon sun of summer. 
Near the coast peas that come in in unexpected times always 
bring good prices, for there is no more desirable vegetable than 
peas produced from California soil. Peas grown from September 
to ]\Iarch should be placed on the sunniest slopes or situati(nis, for 
while the pea will resist much cold, it must have sutficient warmth 
to amply supply its demand for rapid growth. Seed sown in Aug- 
ust and Septeml)er can be depended on to give you a supply in 
December, Ijut there is not a month in the year when you may not 
plant and expect and receive returns commensurate with the care 
and management used in raising. Warm situations are preferable 
for winter crop and cool half shaded locations for summer. North 
hillsides facing south and east where the afternoon sun is soon 
hid are good summer resorts for the pea. 

Peas are divided into early, medium and late, according to the 
time in which they l)ear their crop. Alaska is the earliest of all, 
followed l)y McLean's Little Gem, American Wonder, Xott's Ex- 
celsior and Gradus. The "mediums" are Advancer, Strategem 
and Heroine. The larger, later standards are Yorkshire Hero, 
Telephone and Champion of England. 

Peas are much used for gathering nitrogen from the air and 
giving it again to the soil, Canadian Field peas, Whippoorwill and 



60 GARDENHELPS 

Scotch Blues are used for this purpose extensively in orange and 
lemon orchards. 

The first early variety should be sown in October. One pound 
will sow 60 feet of rows, if sown thicddy. though this should be 
governed largely by the soil ; if light and thin the seed should be 
sown thinly. Too much nitrogenous manure make the peas run 
to vines. The peas do a large amount of nitrogen gathering them- 
selves, as you will see if ycui examine the nodules (little warts) 
that come on the roots which are really nitrogen sacks filled to 
give back to the soil. If you pile in too much nitrogen it is like 
"carr.ving coals to Newcastle". 

A good plan for summer peas is to plant a row of sweet corn 
several weeks before you do the peas ; the corn will furnish shade 
if planted on the west, and the peas will cling to them for support 
after you have gathered the corn. In winter plant the rows east 
and west so the sun will shine longest down them. 

Mildew attacks peas as w^ell as beans, in long continued warm 
weather. A sovereign remedy is to put in a small quantity of sul- 
phur in the drills when you plant, and ;is soon as up sprinkle sul- 
phur to prevent the appearance of mildew. Pea weevil some- 
times attacks the seed peas and beans, in which event use bi-sul- 
phide of carbon in the closed receptacle that holds the peas; it is 
a small black beetle that lays its eggs in the growing peas and de- 
velops after ripening. A repellant composed of sand mixed wuth 
phenyl and sown Avith the peas will keep the bugs from coming 
to the peas. If the weevils are discovered in the peas they may 
be subjected to a bath of hot water up to 145 dgrees for one hour 
and it will not destroy the germinating qualities of the pea but it 
will etfectually dispose of the weevil. 

Perhaps there is no place in the world where the florescent 
variety of peas are so easily and profusely grown. Sweet peas 
laden the air with their perfume and will eliml) a six-foot wire 
netting and still go on above it. Th(\v can be planted as often as 
the garden pea, and similarly cared for, execpt that you keep the 
blossoms continually picked off and the crop is almost perpetual. 

PEPPERS. 

The pepper is usually an annual, and the field crop as well as 
the garden product is gathered at the end of the ripening season. 
Often in the tree form it lives for several years and is both orna- 
mental and serviceable in culinary preparations, as well as hav- 



GARDENHELPS 61 

ing positive medieina] (iiuilitics. Peppers are usually started early 
iu the season in boxes in sheltered plaees and after ground is warm 
are put in the open. An ounce of seed will produce 1500 plants. 
It needs strong uniform heat to germinate them. When plants 
are 3 inches high transplant in rows '■] feet apart and allow 2 feet 
between the plants. Keep soil well cultivated to conserve mois- 
ture for while the pepper does not do its best in water soaked soil, 
yet it requires even moisture from lime of sowing seed till it is 
harvested. It will endure drouth and hardship, but it is unprofit- 
able to permit it to suffer for a needed supply of water. The dis- 
tance apart we have given is where a horse and cultivator is to 
to be used but for garden cidture they may be as near as one foot 
apart and rows eighteen inches. 

The Bull Xnse is a larg(\ earl^• variety. ^Mammoth is as large 
but of milder disposition. Golden Dawn is really a Yellow Bull 
Nose. The tomalo-shape pepper has no particular merit over 
others except for making stuffed pickles. Ruby King is the i)op- 
ular favorite, in having red pods "> or 6 inches long and o inches in 
diameter with Hesh thick, sweet and mild. The long red Cayenne 
is pungent and used for pickling. Ked ('hili is snudl and piuigent 
and used for nudving pepper sauce. Cherry Red, the tree form, is 
ornamental as it has blossoms and ripe fruit on the shrub at the 
same time. The pepper has few enemies and seems pungent 
enough to ward off all comers. It is planted from April to July. 

POTATOES. 

There is no more imporlanl crop than the potato, for if wheat 
is the staff of life, the potato is its first assistant. (3n subirrigated 
land, river Ixittom lands, ami l)ench lands skirting on i-ivers or 
valleys, the potato is grown without iri'igation. but almost every- 
where if two croi)s are raised in the seasmi irrigation is a valua!)le 
lu^lp. On the higli nu^sas the Avintei- (;rop is planted in February 
and generally the rains arc^ sufficient t(^ make a generous crop. In 
the irrigated portions of the state potatoes are planted at almost 
any time, but usually in August and September or February and 
]March. But where irrigation is provided there is no reasmi why 
potatoes cannot be pr(nluced lu^arly the entire year, care being 
taken to rotate and not follow several crops of potatoes in suc- 
cession, as the soil sometimes beconu^s infected and the tubers are 
spoiled l\v scab. December and January are the frostiest months 
in California so the aim is to have the crop dodge these months 



62 GARDENHELPS 

by the planting' in August so the crop can be harvested by Novem- 
ber, then phint in February and dig the crop three months after. 
Now if you have sandy, moist soil there is no reason why you 
shoukl not phmt again in April and make the third crop. Light 
rich soil is best for potatoes so the root system can extend readily, 
if heavy soils only are obtainable they must be improved by add- 
ing limes and roughage, all plowed or spaded in and thoroughly 
decomposed before the seed is planted. It will be seen from the 
nature of things that deep working of the soil is essential in order 
that the tuliers may not be constrained in their elfort to expand. 
The level system of cultivation is best unless you have a super- 
abundance of water, and then it is not wise to use too much ; sog- 
ged potato is next thing to a d(^se of pikery. The hill system pre- 
sents a double surface to the sun and the evaporation from the 
soil is increased. With level cultivation, the soil should be kept 
very fine to prevent as nuich as possible the moth laying eggs near 
the roots of the potato as it will do if clods and lumpy ground are 
l^revalent. Sonu^ raise potatoes under mulching after a thorough 
irrigation or after tlie wint(n' rains, spreading a thick mat of straw 
or hay through wliich the plant pushes. The dependence is that 
there is sul^cient moisture l)eneath to serve the crop till it is ma- 
tured, the straw mulch keeping out the sun and holding all moist- 
ure beneath. This will do if there is au abundance of litter at 
hand to cover the patch good and deep, say six inches, and of 
course all hoeing is dispensed Avith and weeds do not appear. 
Greatest care in harvesting should l)e used not to leave the tuber 
exposed any longer than possible, as the potato moth is instant in 
season and out of season to fill the eyes of the new tubers with 
eggs which when stored hatch a crop of Avorms to eat the potatoes- 
Burbank, Salinas, Early Rose, Early Ohio and many other kinds 
are sold Imt the first mentioned are the standards and produce 
clean, smooth tubers. 

It is liest to change seed every year and get it from the north 
as better crops are secured thereby. Potatoes are planted in rows 
two and a half feet apart with hills a foot apart. The seed may 
be in whole tubers or potatoes cut in quarters. The government 
repor^s are of the opinion that Avhole, fair-sized potatoes produce 
best crops. If you were to save your own seed, it would be Avise 
to select the smoothest, best specimens, and if this were followed 
np every season the time would be well spent as the improvement 
in "breeding up" would show marked advantage. 



G A R D E N H E L P S 63 

Fortunately we are not troubled with the Colorado potato 
beetle, but the potato moth (same pest that attacks the tomatoes) 
is always rea(l^• to get in its M'ork. This or any bitina' inscet is dis- 
couraged and eventually east down by giving the plants a sprink- 
ling of Paris greeu mixed with tiour. (See article on remedies.) 

If the i)i>tato vines get the "early blight" (foliage tiums 
brown and spotted and soon plant dies), use Bordeaux mixture 
by spraying it on just as soon as you discover the disease. No 
time should be lost as the disease woi'ks rapidly. 

The potato dealers when they store their .potatoes resort to 
the use of fumigation with sulphur candles or bi-sulphide of car- 
bon to destroy any insects that mny hatch after the potatoes are in 
the sack or bin. The bi-sulphide is as explosive as gasoline and 
care must be used in preventing a light in its neighljorhood. 

In the spring before planting it is well to give the potatoes an 
immunity bath made hy dissolving one ounce of corrosive sub- 
limate (rank poison) in Ki gallons of water. Put the tubers be- 
fore cutting in a sack and hang them in the solution for an hour 
and a half. It is a preventative against "scab". Three hundred 
l)ushels is a fair yield of potatoes from an acr-e. 

Some people demand that potatoes be spi-outed before they 
plant them. The danger is if the sprouts get too long they will 
get rul)bed olT and the potato has lost .just that much time. If 
potatoes are good and sountl and have well defined eyes tliey will 
grow in any fairly good soil, the more pliable the better. 

PUMPKINS. 

These grow to inuuense size in C^alifornia. An ounce of seed 
will plant 40 hills, enough for several families if iu)thing befalls 
them. Big Tom, ]\lammolh Tours and Cushaw are all large and 
you might as well have the largest going. The Connecticut Yellow 
is rather indilTerent and hard to get over its staid New England 
ways. It seems to avoid the spread of the giants and does not over 
work itself save on color, for it is as yellow as ever only more so. 
It has the same enemies to contend with as the other members of 
the family find are insulting to them and the treatment for the 
enemies of the melon, cucumber and cantaloupe will apply to the 
pumpkin. We plant four months in the year and they grow 
eight months. Like the smaller mend)ers of the family if they 
run too nmeh to vines cut them back and let them know thcA- are 



64 GARDENHELPS 

expected to raise pumpkins, and not make a survey of all the 
adjoining territory. I'lant in hills 8 feet apart. 

RADISHES. 

All kinds, shapes and sizes grow the entire year and if you 
do not sow them they will sow themselves. Eound, long, oblong 
and spiral; red, white and purple; strong, medium and mild; from 
the little French Breakfast to the long White Chinese, which grows 
large enough to fill a quart measure. Sow at any time and place, 
where your fancy dictates and you know you can give them water, 
and they will give returns in about 30 or 40 days. The Triumph 
will mature in 21 days. The Chinese and Spanish kinds are especi- 
ally used in the cool months and French Breakfast in the summer 
months. An ounce of seed will be sufficient for a l)ed 4 feet square. 

Being a near relative of the turnip and cabliage it gets some 
of their enemies when they have more than will go round. We 
never do anything to them, l)ut just nuike a new l)ed in a new 
place. You can not put or spray anything on them with safety 
if you want to eat them in a few days. 

SWEET POTATO. 

The sweet potato in California is usually "great", and in 
any loamy, sandy soil with enough water to keep it growing will 
give good returns. Flow deep and level well. In large fields the 
shoo IS are planted by machinery in shallow, wide furrows and as 
tney grow the earth is pulled toward the plants and in some lo- 
calities finally made into ridges, l)ut what we have said about level 
cultivation respecting Irish potatoes applies to the sweet potato. 
The tubers want to go down rather than up for their moisture 
and plant food. The sweet potato grows readily from cuttings, 
if planted out directly after severing from the parent vine, and in 
moist ground; this method is followed if you only have a plant of 
a rare kind and you want many plants in a short time. The usual 
method is to plant whole sweet potatoes in a seed bed of sand 
where hundreds of sprouts will come on the potato. These are 
carefully broken off and planted in the drills as before mentioned. 
You can make a drill in the open garden and fill a trench with 
horse manure then spread on good sandy soil six inches or more 
deep, wet it and tramp it down, thus improvising a hot bed and 
when it has steamed some of the heat away plant the potatoes, 
keep moist and in about eight weeks more or less you Avill get 



GARDENHELPS 65 

sprouts to plant; when you pull them oft' the tubers they will 
take with them the small bunch of roots they have made ready 
to start in business with. The tubers in the pit wdll then send up 
more sprouts for a second crop if you need them later. We plant 
in the oj^en from March to July according to locality. 

To get early potatoes, instead of pulling off the sprouts you 
take a whole potato out of the warm pit and cut a piece of potato 
with each bunch of sprouts and plant that. It goes on undis- 
turbed, while the sprouts have to catch on again. You have to 
cultivate or hoe the weeds out after planting till the vines cover 
the ground. The rows should be at least 3 feet apart and it is 
wise, when the space is all tilled with vines with a sharp spade to 
cut the ends of the vines to prevent them piling over each other. 
They also give more attention to making tubers and a better crop 
is the result. 

To preserve the potatoes after digging you must in some way 
sweat them. Pile them up around a cone of wire netting set up 
endwise, make the cone or roll fast with stakes, pile the potatoes 
up around this wire roll and form a sort of chimney. Cover the 
pile Avith straw and the potatoes will sweat like a beaver. Un- 
cover in the middle of the day and let the perspiration dry off, 
then cover again and repeat till the potatoes are dried out suffici- 
ently to permanently cover with hay or straw enough to keep 
out sun and rain, but so that air can penetrate. This will be 
found the safest way to keep sweet potatoes, which if piled up 
and left to themselves get dry rot, wet rot, black rot and several 
other kinds, because they are so thin skinned. The varieties used 
are Yellow Nansemond, Large White and Jersey Red. JMake seed 
bed in February and plant until May. 

RHUBARB OR PIE PLANT. 

Sow the seed early in February in drills IS inches apart, cover 
an inch deep and thin the plants to 6 inches apart. Keep down 
all weeds and when the plants are about one year old, plant in a 
bed well enriched by an a1)undance of well rotted manure. Set 
them 4 feet apart each way, and do not cut the stalk till next 
year. Keep them well supplied with manure. If you plant roots 
in the fall you may expect to cut pie plant the next year. After 
the second year it can be increased by division of roots. Rhubarb 
needs rich soil, not so particular as many plants about the texture, 
if it is only retentive of moisture, it cannot endure a high degree 



66 GARDENHELPS 

of heat and must have good mulching to keep the moisture in the 
soil. It grows to perfection in the foothill regions of the state. 
The Crimson Winter is considered a decided acquisition and will 
grow so much better under all conditions than the older kinds, 
that many are raising rhubarb who could not raise it before. It 
matures six months earlier than the Linneus and is a constant in- 
stead of a periodical bearer. 

A grub % of an inch long is its enemy and has its home in 
the wild dock. Burn the wild dock and the roots of rhubarb that 
are attacked, or the eggs will be laid in the roots. 

ROSELLE. 

This plant of the hibiscus family has flowers something like a 
small hollyhock. The calyx of the flower, in fact the whole plant 
is of a mucilaginous nature and all can be used to make a very 
appetizing form of jelly, about the color of cranberry. The calyx 
of the flower can be dried or kept indefinitely and made into 
jelly at any time. While not much used because we have so much 
fruit, yet it supplies a place, where fruit is scarce in the form of 
jelly that costs no more than other kinds and is produced from 
the plant the first season. It should rather be classed with the 
fruits than the vegetables, though the jelly can be used to thicken 
soups if wanted. A row of it is quite ornamental as a border 
plant or backing for smaller plants. It is a sun-loving plant and 
wants a long season. Plant in boxes early and transplant. 

SALSIFY OR VEGETABLE OYSTER- 

This is also quite an ornamental plant as the purple- thistle- 
like flowers grow from 3 to 4 feet high the second year on going to 
seed. It is the roots that are particularly useful (grown about like 
carrots or parsnips) and give a most valuable addition to the list 
of table vegetables, having a decided oyster flavor and being very 
appetizing either boiled or fried. The "Sandwich Island" grows 
to an immense size. Sow from September to May in drills 2 feet 
apart. Thin to 6 inches. 

SPINACH. 

This may be an all-year plant in California under irrigation 
and is like parsley a beautiful border plant for the vegetable 
garden. If raised in connection with that plant the shadings of 
green blend most harmoniously. It is used for "greens" and by 
successive plantings ma}' be had constantly; its handsome curly 



GARDENHELPS 67 

leaves are ever bright and clean. The New Zealand variety has 
won praise in California for its better drouth resisting powers 
than our native American plant. The trouble has been that some 
have not learned how to use it, taking the whole plant and boiling 
it, and in so doing finding it very tough in spots. It grows so pro- 
lific-ally that only the tender ends need be used, and those before 
any sign of seed pods are visible. When boiled tender, not even 
:\lissouri can furnish ''greens" to beat it. The native spinach 
should be sown in drills a foot apart and thinned to six inches 
while the New Zealand will cover several feet in circumference, 
shading the ground with a thick mat of vegetation which helps 
it to resist so successfully the dry heat. But to have tender 
spinach it must have enough water to keep it crisp and green. 
Chickens that are confined under the new methods of poultry 
raising enjoy it as they do the companion plant from Australia, a 
triplex semibaccata. The latter also can be used ornamentally 
with good effect. Sow when you feel like it. 

SQUASHES. 

All kinds and shapes can be raised nearly all the year. From 
the little summer variety to the giant Chili, Summer Crook Neck, 
Boston ]\Iarrow and Hard Shell Turban, there are in all more than 
a dozen to choose fnnn. All require about the treatment accorded 
melons and pumpkins and tlie same enemies need the same treat- 
ment. Plant the bush varieties about 4 feet apart. Hubbard and 
Turbans 8 feet apart. Plant in February in boxes to transplant 
again. 

SORREL. 

A plant not generally in use Init cooked and used as spinach. 
Some persons prefer it mixed with spinach as it has a tart flavor 
that is quite agreeable. It is sown in the cool months at any time 
and in drills 18 inches apart. It remains in the ground and makes 
an excellent border, if on the north side, and not too much exposed 
to the sun, as the action of heat increases its acidity, 

TOMATOES. 

One of the most useful and reliable garden products in Cali- 
fornia and in what is termed frostless ground the plant lives and 
bears nearly the entire season. The seed can be planted in such 
locations as early as January in boxes in sheltered places aAvay 
from the night winds and put in the open in March, when seed can 



68 GARDENHELPS 

also be sown in the open ground if desired. The success of the to- 
mato depends largely in keeping it in vigorous, rapid growing 
condition, and if unchecked in its early stages it will soon develop 
fruit. In respect to fruiting it must be remembered that hardly 
any plant will successfully pollenize below a temperature of 70 
degrees. Often complaint is made that the blossoms do not set 
fruit ; the reason is obvious, there has not been sufficient warmth 
to make the pistillate blossoms receptive to the pollen from the 
staminate flower. Both are borne on the same plant and require 
warmth, a light breeze or the action of insects to perfectly accom- 
plish the work of pollenization. 

An ounce of seed will produce 1500 plants and if sown in 
boxes should be transplanted into other boxes a distance of 4 or 
5 inches apart and Avhen strong and stocky should be set out in 
well enriched soil 4 feet apart. By supporting the vines and vig- 
orously trimming the non-bearing laterals the plant will produce 
more fruit. It is customary with some to train to a single stock, 
tied to an upright stake, leaving only enough foliage to prevent 
sun-scald. 

Early plants can be secured by planting seed in bottomless 
cans and starting them in the house, letting them grow in the cans 
leaving them undisturbed until you transplant to the open ground 
after removing the can. The cans are prepared by putting them 
in the fire, when top and bottom will fall out and the side seam 
open leavinsf only a cube. This you fasten tos'ether with a piece 
of wire (old cans and baling wire are a public asset here), this 
set in a flat box and fill with good sterilized soil (soil that has 
burned under a brush heap killing: all weed seed and insects). 
Then sow seed, and water carefully, finally leaving one or two in 
the can to transplant. By this means your plants never receive a 
check from start to time of planting in the open, and if carefully 
watered will grow ou without hesitation. 

There are more than twenty different kinds. Earliana is, as 
its name implies, one of the earliest large smooth vigorous, grow- 
ing tomatoes, and very prolific. The several Stones are bright, 
smooth and meaty. Crimson Cushion is a good variety for 
winter bearing. Ponderosa is the largest fruited tomato grown, 
often weighing from 2 to 4 pounds each. It has few seeds, with 
firm meat and is a healthy, luxuriant grower. Acme and Beauty 
are both meritorious, producing smooth crimson fruit, of a fair size 



GARDENHELPS 69 

and excellent flavor. The small tomatoes like cherry, pear, straw- 
berry and yellow plum are prolific, but little used commercially. 
All are very easily grown, as is also the luisk tomato which once 
in the garden, is hard to eradicate. In favorable seasons large 
shipments are made to markets in the eastern states and the winter 
crop of tomatoes is a source of profitable income. _ To secure a 
good winter crop plants must be set as early as August and kept 
vigorously growing when an abundance of small fruit set on the 
vines before the days liecome too cool for pollenization. All the 
fruit set no matter how small will grow and come to perfection 
under the winter sun. 

The diseases of the tomato are not many but the "wilt" is 
the most distressing. Where it appears, the best remedy is to im- 
mediately pull up the plant and burn it l)efore others are infected; 
it is a sudden collapse of the entire plant without evident cause. 
The brown spot of the leaf, similar to the potato disease, will soon 
destroy a plant, and Bordeaux should be applied to the diseased 
plant, and all in its vicinity, as soon as discovered. Nematodes 
is a disease of the roots, the plant begins to fail and faint, turns 
yellow and finally dies. On examinatimi you will find the roots 
are covered with nodules (warts) which prove it to be a soil dif- 
ficulty. The plant must l)e pulled up and the soil treated wnth a 
good application of unslacked lime. Plant some other vegetable 
before you put tomatoes there again. The Avorm that is so severe 
on your corn, likewise attacks the tomato and either must be 
picked off by hand or applications of Paris green and flour, one 
part to twenty, must be used to destroy insects of any and all 
descriptions that bite the foliage or the fruit. 

The rot of the tomato is a very serious malady, if permitted 
to spread. The ripe fruit, and fruit in all stages, are infected by 
a spot, at first violet colored then turning to brown that rots the 
tomato. The application of Bordeaux in the early stages is a 
partial preventative, but it is found that the application of one 
ounce of Iduestone in six ounces of water, well dissolved, then 
applied with a brush, rubbing in the liquid on the spot, is a cure. 
All diseased tomatoes should lie gathered and burned, not left on 
the ground near the vines. If the "ringer" or leaf hopper ap- 
pears, a repellant of ashes mixed with kerosene is obnoxious to 
these insects which erode or eat the young plants. The fruit worm 
before mentioned (Helioanthis armiger) feeds ravenously on the 



70 • GARDENHELPS 

i'ruit. If possible it should be destroyed without putting poison on 
the tomatoes, unless the fruit is small. 

TURNIPS. 

This is a useful crop for the cool months and can be better 
sown broadcast or in drills 15 inches apart and thinned to 8 
inches apart. An ounce of seed will sow" 150 feet of drills. Tur- 
nips thrive in almost any soil but prefer deep loam well enriched 
with manure. They can be sown from September until April. If 
sown in drills they are more easily cared for, weeded, or irrigated. 

There are ten or more varieties to select from. Both the white 
and Swedish rutabagas bring good returns for care bestowed. 
Sweet G-erman is one of the very best for table use, as is the Im- 
proved Yellow rutabaga. The turnip has some of the family 
troubles left over from its cabbage inheritance. A serious one is 
the fly which can be subdued by sprays of kerosene and water, one 
part kerosene to 10 of water. 




The climate and long period for garden operations in Cali- 
fornia make it desirable and almost indispensible that the garden 
be supplied with the htn-bs so nsefnl for ])t)th flavoring and medical 
uses, so effective in the hands of our elderly nurses. The direc- 
tions for sowing the seed, most of which are very minute, are to 
cover them in well prepared soil in drills with not more than twice 
their thickness of earth, and keep moist till they germinate. They 
can all be sown in the cool months and some of them will mature 
the first season. To get the most out of them they should be 
gathered before they get into full bloom and be carefully hung 
away in paper sacks to dry and be ready for use on demand. 

ANISE. 

This plant is so common as to be considered one of our wild 
roadside plants, yet it possesses an agreeable aromatic flavor. The 
seeds as well as the plants are used for cordials and garnishing. 

SWEET BASIL. 

A seasoning of very high flavor and used in soups and stews 
and spiced meats. 

CARAWAY. 

This is well known for the seed it produces abundantly which 
is used by confectioners in bread and pastry, giving agreeable 
flavor. 

CATNIP. 

Catnip grows \vell, Init few however raise it. It makes good 
bee pasture as well as having medicinal qualities of a sedative 
nature. The leaves are used for seasoning. 

CORIANDER. 

The seeds only of this plant are employed by confectioners and 
restauranteurs to give flavor to li(iUors. 

DILL. 

The seeds only are used. They have a piuigent aromatic taste 



72 GARDENHELPS 

and are used as a condiment and for mixing with cucumbers as 
pickles. 

SWEET FENNEL. 

Both leaves and seeds are used. The leaves boiled are used 
in sauces and make a beautiful garnish. The seeds are used for 
flavoring drinks and confectionery. 

HOREHOUND. 

Entire plant is valuable, when dried, for seasoning and in the 
manufacture of well known cough remedies and candies. 

LAVENDER. 

One of the most beautiful as well as fragrant plants, emitting 
a most delicate and delightful perfume. Used in the manufacture 
of perfumery. No flower border is complete without it. 

SWEET MARJORAM. 

The leaves and tender shoots are highly prized for season- 
ing by culinary department of the home. 

ROSEMARY. 

A native wild plant yielding a distinctly agreeable perfume 
and by a few used as seasoning in dinner preparations of vege- 
table composition. Cultivated, it makes a most beautiful shrub. 

SAGE. 

One of the most easily grown and extensively used of all our 
family of aromatic herbs and in seasonings and dressing almost 
indispensible. While it grows so profusely and easily, it is so 
often put in neglected places and forgotten that when the leaves 
are needed an order has to be sent to the drug store or grocer, 
when the garden should supply it at small cost. 

THYME. 

Much prized by some persons, but not so generally desired as 
sage for seasoning meats or vegetables and soups. 

WORMWOOD. 

This plant possesses medicinal qualities of a bitter nature. It 
is quite as valual^le in the poultry yard as anywhere, as a preventa- 
tive of some prevalent disease in fowls. It is cleansing in its 
effects. 



m FlowerinQT Plants and Shrubs M 

PJ " m 

®®'®®®'®®:®®@'®®'®®®®®:@®®®'®®®a 

This list •will grow and thrive where there is an annual rain- 
fall of ten inehes and endure with less, but all are benefited by 
an occasional irrigation. 

The first on the list are the Acacias, in many forms from a 
delicate fern-leaved shrnl) to the tall spreading specimens like 
A. Melanoxylon. i\[()st of them have dark green, slender foliage 
and an a))nndance of yellow bloom. There are some thirty-five 
specimens to select from, nearly all of which will grow with the 
annual rainfall of Southern California. 

Ceretonia siliqua ; Casuarina, several sorts growing to ma- 
jestic trees; Guadaloupensis Cupressus, or Guadaloupe cypress and 
C.vpi'fss sempervirens ; Phoenician Juniper and Lawson c.A'press are 
among the evei'greens that make imposing objects in the landscape. 
Of the i^ines there are Pinus Ilalpensis. P. Insigna. P. Pinea. P. 
]Monterey and P. Torre.vana. Pepper or Schinus molle is a great 
favorite, Grevillea Robusta is a tall growing tree with old-gold 
colored bloom, commonly known as Australian Silk oak. The 
grevillea family is quite extensive. The handsome shrub with 
scarlet blossoms is the best of the few ustnl in California- 

The Eucalyptus group are abounding growers and can be 
selected to suit almost any localit.v. from the E. globulus, which 
delights in lovr moist situations to the E. rudis which will endure 
the extreme heat of the desert situations. E. rostrata. E. coryno- 
calyx and E. robusta are fine specimens for dry situations. INIyso- 
porum and Pittisporum, low growing shrubs with thick leaves 
and fragrant blossoms, are desirable. Mysoporum latifolia has a 
lighter shade of green and is well liked. 

All the Lantanas endure light rainy seasons and all cacti, 
some of them giving exquisite masses of bloom. The Euphorbias — 
crown of thorns — the ^Melalucea or bottle brushes ; Lavendula, and 
the wild native shrub of the same order, bearing feathery, olive 
green foliage, known as rosemary, completes a partial list (which 
might be greatly extended) of the groups most serviceable in re- 
sisting drouth. 



74 GARDENHELPS 

SHRUBS THAT ENJOY SEA WINDS. 

Shrubs and plants that will grow if exposed to heavy sea 
winds are: Tamarisk plumosa, most graceful and desirable for 
adornment near the ocean front ; most of the acacias ; Ceretonia sil- 
iqua; Mysoporum; Pinus Torreyana ; the Pepper; Atriplex Hali- 
mus (old man) ; the Bottle brushes; Oleanders in various colors; 
Cupressa Macrocarpa ; Juniparis Phoeniciana; all the low^ growing 
Veronicas. 

STREET TREES- 

Trees suitable for avenues and streets are Camphor, Acacia 
dealabata and A. decurrens ; Araucaria Bidwillii and A. Brasili- 
3nsis; Eucalyptus ficifolia (red flowering) and E. rudis (will 
stand much hardship); Jacaranda miamosafolia ; ^^lagnolia ; Rub- 
ber and Grevillea robusta. The last named stands drouth well, 
but drops leaves constantly and on that account is not so desirable 
along sidewalks. 

ORNAMENTAL TREES. 

Some of the most desirable ornamental trees are: Araucaria 
excelsa, A. Bidwillii; Cedrus deodora ; Acacia riciana (fern fol- 
iage); A. Baileyana ; A. Cultriformis (odd shaped olive green 
leaves) ; Arbor vitae ; Thuyas; Banksia Australis ; Italian Cypress; 
Casuarina equistifolia ; C. Cunningham; C. tunus; Crasus illice- 
folia ; Cestrum nocturnum ; Cryptomeria ; Cryptomeria elegans, 
from Japan; Brachychiton acerifolia, or Australian tlame tree; 
Jacaranda; ^Magnolia granditiora ; Pinus Canariensis; Sequoia gi- 
gantea (redwood); ^lelia or umbrella tree; St- John's Bread; 
Monterey Cypress. 

PALMS. 

All the Chamaerops are not ol)trusive like the Phoenix or 
wide spreading specimens we see so fre(|uently monopolizing the 
entire front yard. Chamaerops excelsa (windmill palm) is mod- 
est but gets up out of the way if planted near the sidewalk. The 
Cocos is very graceful and desirable, especially C. plumosa, C. 
Australis and C. butyracea are not so well and favorabl.y known. 
Cycas revoluta or sago palm is a specimen of individual beauty, 
adapted to almost any situation on the lawn. The Dracenas are 
numerous and odd but not especially ornamental, except for their 
positive tropical effects. Seaforthia elegans is the most graceful 
subject to place in any ornamental grounds; it has a grace and 



GARDENHELPS 75 

beauty all its own. All are easily grown in California, bnt like 
the banana should be put in a sheltered position where the wind 
W'ill not injure them. The Washington palms, Rob\;sta and So- 
nera are familiar objects in our landscape, and a long avenue of 
either is always a striking illustration of the value of uniformity 
in planting- 

NOVELTIES. 

The Yueeas. Aloes and Bamboos grow in magnificent pro- 
fusion. Cannas. Callas. Caladiums, Hydrangeas, Hibiscus, Echum 
simplex (Honey-plant), the graceful crepe-flowered ^latilija poppy 
are among the novelties. The IMarguerite and Eschscholtzia are 
familiar to all and never out of place. ^lelianthus, Poinsettia. 
Poinciana and Papyrus are ever objects of l)eauty. The Spanish 
broom. Sedum, Crinums and Amaryllis are useful. A profusion 
of bulbous plants by which to adt»rn the home, are varied in form 
and color. A wealth of climbing vines is requisite for ornamenta- 
tion. 

ROSES. 

The rose is here not only the queen Imt in some form can be 
found in fragrant exposition nearly the entire year. It delights 
in a soil that is loamy at the surface underlaid by permeable clay. 
It should be planted in the full sunlight; if it mildews and refuses 
to produce perfect blossoms in the shade move it to sunny spot; 
if it continues to mildew discard it and plant the varieties that 
do not blast so easily. If mildew comes, use sulphur plentifully; 
if the red rust use the Bordeaux. (See formulas.) 

Standard or tea roses are usually budded to thrifty stock of 
the native wild rose. Plant some wild roses to be ready to bud on 
any variety you wish. The Tea roses are called ever-blooming 
and if rightly eared for, produce new wood constantly, and thus 
fill up the season with constant masses of fragrant bloom. 

Banksia roses or cluster roses produce small flowers, but an 
abundance of them. Bengal or China roses are moderate growers, 
not over fragrant but give compact growth and brilliant colors. 
The Bourbons make moderate growth and need close pruning. 
They have thick foliage and blossoms generally of light color. 
Hybrids are constant bloomers and nearly always give full re- 
turns from pains bestowed. Hybrid Perpetuals are not perpetual 
bloomers, but are striking in form and color. Hybrid Teas are 



76 GARDENHELPS 

stronger groovers and eonibine freer blooming qualities with rich 
coloring. The Japan or Riigosas are nsually single flowers with 
glossy foliage. The moss roses do not thrive well in Southern 
California. The Noisettes are of American origin, and vigorous 
growers with a tendency to grow in clusters. The Polyanthas are 
from Japan, rich in color, bearing panicles of almost perpetual 
bloom. 

The Prairie roses are not used much in Southern California. 
There are constantly being grown new shades and forms of ex- 
cpiisite beauty, some of these are climbers. Kaiserina Augusta Vic- 
toria, ]\Ieteor, La Marcpie, Cloth of Gold, Xiphetos and ]\Iarechal 
Xiel. 

TEA ROSES. 

Bon Silene, dark crimson ; Bridesmaid, Catherine ]\Iermet, 
light flesh; La France, pink; Duchess, IMaman Cochet, Etoile de 
Lyon, finest yellow ; Gloire de Dijon, buff center, hardy; Madame 
Joseph Swartz; Papa Gontier, brilliant carmine; Reine Marie Hen- 
riette. This comprises a partial list, but one generally admired 
and satisfactory in cultivation. The rose needs feeding liberally 
with nitrates combined with farm manures. 

CARNATIONS. 

Next to the rose the carnation thrives and delights thousands 
who find them in profusion here during the winter months. They 
are easily raised from cuttings with bottom heat. Their variety 
is as charming as tln-ir fragrance. They can be raised in any 
good garden soil well enriched- The carnation does not enjoy 
poverty of soil, responds to liberal supplies of liciuid manure and 
is generally robust in growth. 

OTHER FLOWERS. 

Ageratum, tall blue and dwarf white and blue, fine for masses 
and bedding, from half a foot to one and a half feet high. 

Alyssum, white, dwarf and compact for border and edging, 
easily grown and spreads rapidly. 

Amaranthus, three feet high, good for background to mass 
among shrubbery; colors: red, crimson, purple and gold. 

Argemone or Mexican poppy is showy with mixed colors, 
but not a great favorite. 

Asters for Autumn blooming are indispensible for the hum- 
blest flower garden and are a close rival of the Chrvsanthemum 



GARDENHELPS 77 

and a bed or l)order is a source of pride and joy to its possessor 
for several months in the year. They can be planted in succession 
and made to cover a long period of blossoming. One to two feet 
in height. 

Balsams, the old time Lady Slipper with their mixed colors 
are the gay friends of the snnnner, one to two feet in height. 

Cosmos, from white to scarlet, from one to four feet high, 
good for back of border. 

California Poppy — Eschscholtzia — golden yellow and the re- 
cent creation of scarlet. Cannas, Linum, Nigelia, ^Marigold, Migno- 
nette, Nasturtiums, Delphiniums, Lobelias, Nemphillias, Phlox, 
Chrysanthemums. Stocks, Salpiglossis, Sweet Peas. 

Among the list of perennials are, Dianthus, Shasta Daisy, 
Gaillardias, Petunias and many others. 

A few flowers require partial shade. The following are best 
suited for the north side of building: Callas, English Ivy, Pansies, 
Violets. Campanula, Gloxinia, Wallflower and the Swan Eiver 
Daisy, free bloomer with flowers similar to the Cineraria, native 
of Australia. 

Calendula is a sunloving plant of the portulaca type, low 
growing and good for rock work- Calceolaria (sown in August) 
beautifully mottled, blotched, striped, one and a half feet high. 
Calendula, yellow striped, one foot high; Calleopsis, profuse 
bloomer, brown and yellow, fine for masses and border, two feet 
high ; Candytuft, good for border or masses, colors range from 
scarlet to white, one foot high; Catchfly (silene) mixed colors, 
one foot high ; Celosia or coxcomb, mixed colors, from dwarf to 
two feet, — the list could l)e continued through all the range of 
the annuals and biennials with profit, but search flower catalogues 
that make yearly lists and select from them. 




Classification and Propagation 



THE BEST KNOWN FAMILIES. 

We give from various authorities on hortieulture, some sta- 
tistics in relation to the great families of plants as now known 
and classified. The holanieal family name usually ends in -aceae. 
There are two hundred families or orders of tlowering plants: 
7,000 genera; more than 100,000 species described. There are 
many more tlowerless plants, as ferns, mosses, mushrooms, fungi, 
liclu'ns, sea weed and microscopic plants. 

The (!rowfoot family includes the clematis, marsh marigold, 
cow slip, columbine, adonis, buttercup, larkspur, aconite, peony, 
nigeliji and oliiers, making ov(n- 12,000 species of jilauts living 
in all paiis of the wor-ld. There ai'e one hundred species of 
clematis known, and fifty distinct species of larkspur (delphinium) 
oidy a few of which ;ii-e cultivated. Southern California has some 
of the most intense indigo blue varieties. The peony is found 
wild iu viciidty of Pala and the Palomar mountains and in foot- 
hill districts, but does not tlirive near the coast. 

The magnolia is a well known tree in California having been 
introductMl fi-om China and its imnu'use blossoms and robust 
proportions make it a striking figure in ])i\i'k ami j-esidence 
grounds, in all parts of the state. Of the seventy species about 
fourteen are magnolias proper- 

The waterlily family (Xyni])hae;iceae) is represented by eight 
genera and thirty-five species, all a(|u;dic. The lotus, water lily 
and bladder plants are well known representatives. 

The Mustnrd family (Ouciferae) embraces many of the well 
known vegetables, all the calibage gi'(uij), tui'uips, horseradish, 
sea kale, cress ami radishes. It contains 2000 species, among them 
flowers like stocks, alyssum and wall flower. 

The Violet family has about two hiuulin'd and fifty s|)ecies 
distributed over the world, the largei" portion being violets. Some 
of this family attain the size of shrubs. 

The Pink family (Caryophyllaceae) has fully 1,000 species 
and thirty-five genera. The ornamental genera are the dianthus, 
carnations, saporiaria. silene (catchfly) lychnis. Dianthus, 



GARDENHELPS 79 

''Jove's Flower" iiuitil)ers two hundred species and the corn 
cockles and catch flies are ineliided in the family. 

The Mallow family (^lalvaceae) in its entirety is at home in 
California. The best known of the seven hundred species are the 
hibiscus, holly-hoek, nialva, African mallow, abutilons, yossypium 
and cotton. 

The Linden family is repi'esented l)y the flowering maples 
and the chestnut, both European and Japanese. Only a few^ of 
the seven hundred species are represented in California. 

The entire Pulse family (Leguminosae) is especially used in 
agriculture. In the orchards as cover crops several are used and 
there is hardly a place in the world that can excel the California 
display of sweet peas, beans, clover, locust and acacias. The sen- 
sitive plant is among the representatives of the ];"),()()() species 
and from the garden pea to the mes(iuit of the desert are all rep- 
resented in California. 

The Eose family (Rosaceae) is liei'e as elsewhere the very 
flrst among the families of plants. It embraces the ai)ple, pear, 
quince, strawberry, dewberry, blackberry, peach, plum, apricot, 
almond, cherry and mountain ash. All have blossoms in form 
like the wild rose, Cherokee or Manchuria rose. 

Of Roses more than two hundred and fifty have been named, 
but three dozen will include those really valuable for ciflture. 
There are five thousand species of strawberries. The entire Rose 
family has one thousand species divided among seventy genera. 
It is the most important group of plants in California. 

The Vitas or Grape family is cfiually important as far as its 
value to the fruit grower is concerned, as grapes from all countries 
in the world can be successfully produced here. There is no 
nobler specimen than the Muscat species which ainiually produces 
an immense revenue in the form of raisins. The Emperor and 
Tokay are shipped to European markets. 

The Cactus family has a thousand s|)('cies. The latest and 
best are the spineless varieties being cultivated for their utility 
as food for stock and poultry and the improved fruit they bear. 
Some of the most brilliant, l)ut generally of brief existence are 
the blossoms of the group, especially the Phylocactus- 

The Carrot (or Umbelliflora) famih' includes in the thirteen 
hundred species, parsnip, parsley, celery, caraway, anise and dill, 
all well known in our state. 



80 GARDENHELPS 

One-ninth of all the flowering plants belong to the Composite 
gronp -with ten thousand species, of which the sunfioAver is the 
type. Lettuce, endive, cardoon, artichoke are all included, but 
by far the larger number of composites are ornamental plants. 

The Heath (Ericaceae) family includes the cranberry and 
huckleberry. Among the flowering shrubs of the group are 
azaleas, rhododendrons, and lilacs a large number of which are 
found in the mountains of California and I\Iexico. 

The Primula or primrose family have about two hundred 
and fifty species. Florists divide the group into auriculias, poly- 
anthus, primroses and cowslips. 

The Olive or Oleaceae family comprises the privet, jasmine, 
ash and our well known olive so reputable in commerce. There 
are one hundred and thirty species of jasmine, two of forsythia, 
half a dozen syringas and twenty-five privets. Of the thirty-five 
olives, the Mission, ManzaniHo, Ascalan Oblit/a and Servillana 
are the best varieties for pickling. 

There are some eight hundred species of the Convolvulus or 
Morning Glory family which includes the valuable sweet potato 
but the opposite is found in the parasitic dodder which is injurious 
to the bee plant, wild buckwheat. 

There are thirty species of the Phlox family l)ut the annuals 
thrive better than the perennials in Calif(nmia. 

The Solonaceae or potato family is an economic one of great 
importance as it includes the tomato, pepper and egg plant. 
Among the fifteen hundred species are included the night shade 
and belladonna. The light blue flowering climlier solanum so 
frequently seen in yards anci ornamental grounds is one of the 
most conspicuous. 

There are about two thousand species of the oVIint family 
composed principally of tlie aromatic herbs, not extensively grown 
in California. 

The Nettle (or TJtracaceae) family have the most dissimilar 
grouping of any of the families of plants. To place the fig, mul- 
berry, bread fruit, elm, hop and osage orange under the same 
classification seems to any one but the botanist sheer absurdity, 
yet a close study of some points will disclose a family resem])lance. 

There are about thirty species of the Walnut (Juglandaceae) 
family. There are several walnuts and eight or ten hickory nuts, 
natives of the western states. California has a native walnut on 
which it is liest to graft all other varieties. 



GARDENHELPS 81 

The Ciipiiliferae or Oak family luiinbers four hundred species: 
beeches, birches, hazels, till)erts, alder, hornlieam and iron wood 
are classed in the cupuliferae ^jfroup. Our California Live Oak 
is one of the noblest specimens of the group. 

Orchidaceae or Orchid family numbers five thousand species, 
most of them uncommon and rare, many of them are epiphytic, or 
grow above ground on other plants. They grow chiefly in warm 
bogs and deep shaded woods of the tropics. Our Lady fSlipper is 
related to the family. 

The Iris (Iridaceae) family is at home in California, and 
comprises many showy garden flowei's well known as iris, glad- 
iolus, ixias, tigridias and crocus, seven hundred species in all. 

The Amaryllis family comprises many lily like plants pro- 
ducing rich i^rofusion of l)loom. Th(\v include the crinums, 
Guernsey lily, narcissus and others, some seven hundred species, 
divided into sixty-four genera. 

There are more than two thousand species of the Lily family. 
Tulips and hyacinths are included in this group, also some tree- 
like specimens as aloes, yuccas and other ornamental plants. The 
garden onion and also the sea onion are relatives of the family. 

There are eleven hundred Palms, some of which produce 
edible fruit like the date and cocoanut. They are divided into 
one hundred and thirty genera. 

The Pine, coniferae or cone bearing family include plants 
and trees of very dissimilar form. ^lost of the family have needle 
like leaves sometimes deciduous and the ginkgo has broad fiat 
leaves. There are three hundred species in the family. There are 
about seventy true pines, thirty of which are native to the Ignited 
States. In California the ^Monterey pine and spruce, the pinus 
halpensis, Torreyana, Canaresensis are among the best known. 
]\Iany spruces, larches and arbor vitaes are objects of beauty in 
our ornamental grounds. The Araucarias, Cryptomerias, Lawson 
and Italian cypress and the graceful Cedrus Deodora the most 
useful and best known. 

The ' classification of plants has been the patient work of 
botanists and scientists for a century past and the new era of 
development W'ill add many valuable additions to the multitude 
now known and classified. 



82 GARDENHELPS 

POLLENIZATION AND HYBRIDIZING. 

The process of plant creation is similar to all other pro-creative 
processes, the male and female organisms being requisite in union 
to produce the life of the plant. The majority of plants and trees 
have the staminate and pistillate organisms on the same plant and 
produce different blooms that by the pollen (seed dust) of one 
flower entering the ovaries of another flower, the life process is 
begun. The walnut is well known instance of this, the catkins or 
male flowers blooming and hanging above the female bloom. If 
both are in condition at the time, if no violent winds or storms 
l)low or wash away the pollen, it falls into the ovaries of the pistil- 
late bloom and the tree produces a crop of walnuts. The hop and 
the date are instances of the opposite form, where the trees or 
vines are male and female, but individually separate. The pollen 
from the male tree must be carried by insects, by winds or by the 
artificial process of hand pollenization from the male to the fe- 
male, or no perfect fruit will he developed. In the case of the hop, 
about one male plant is set among a hundred of the female and 
wind and insects convey the pollen that produces the future crop. 

It will be seen at a glance how important the process is to the 
gardener and farmer, and how often blame is attached to seed, 
plant or seedsman, when the truth is that conditions have not been 
favorable to perfect pollenization. Tomatoes grown in the winter 
when the temperature is below 70 seldom produce fruit, and in 
the early spring the same difficulty occurs. They bloom profusely 
and wonder is expressed that they do not show signs of fruiting 
but instead the blossoms fall off unfertilized. We do not use the 
term "fertilized" with reference to application of manures and 
compound fertilizers used as food for the growing plant, but refer 
to the action of the pollen as the life seed introduced from the 
staminate to the pistilate organism of the plant, which producer.' 
future life, variation, perfection or non-perfection as the case 
may be. 

In greenhouses and places where the agency of bees or other 
insects, or light winds cannot come, it is often necessary to assist 
nature in her work by "hand pollenization", or by taking some 
of the pollen grains from the male plant and with a camel's hair 
pencil introducing the pollen into the flowers of the pistillate, 
which can be distinguished by their having no stamen and anthers. 
The pistilate form, if cut open, would be found to contain minute 



GARDENHELPS 83 

seeds ■waiting the coming of the pollen grains to give them the 
vivifying touch of the power to change into perfect life, which is 
withheld without the union of the two. 

The re(iuisites for perfect pollenization are the proper degree 
of heat, the blooming of the sexual Howers at nearly the same time 
so insects can carry the pollen from one tiower to another when 
the pollen dust will remain in the viscid, warm cup of the ovaries 
that receives it. The process is wonderful and by it the multi- 
tude of varieties in plant life are constantly being produced in 
form, taste and color that are astonishing and alike miraculous, 
to those who do not investigate the reasons for the changes in 
form and hue of the tiower and the texture and flavor of the fruit. 

The Divine plan of polleni>cation being a systematic one. it 
opens wide the door of discovery, investigation and development 
of myriads of diversified forms that in their change, which seem 
mysterious, add new creations to please both the eye and the ap- 
petite of man. Pollenization is a means placed in the hands of 
the careful opc^rator to add multitudes of blessings to the world. 
Patient minds like that of Luther Burbank and others have by 
the use of pollenization succeeded by this, and selection, in pro- 
ducing hybrid forms of fruit, vegetables and flowers that con- 
stantly add to the use and pleasure of mankind. 

The development of plant life to higher and better orders or 
forms of the same species is every where present, and on every 
hand can be seen creations that have been developed from some 
Avild and untutored species into the broadest usefulness. With 
the eye of prophetic promise, Mr. Burbank looking into the future 
has grandly said: "A day will come when man will offer his 
brother man not bullets nor bayonets, but richer grains, better 
fruits and fairer flowers." 

The work of the botanist of a few years ago was to select and 
classify the mummies of plants, a work both needed and bene- 
ficial. But the work of today is to step into a broader arena than 
the mausoleum of plants. It was supposed that they had no des- 
tiny beyond the fixed classification given them, that heaven and 
earth would pass away but not one jot or tittle of the stilted classi- 
fication could be changed. But we have learned that the entire 
range of growing beauty from the humblest violet to the majestic 
sequoia, are as clay in the potter's hand to shape into forms of 
either usefulness or dishonor, as he may see fit. The changes 



84 GARDENHELPS 

that can be made in the most phistic forms are simply marvehms. 
We have not space here save to hint at some of the ways nature 
has the mirror held up to her face before and after her transfor- 
mations from the insignificant and dingy to the magnificent and 
gorgeous in color, form and utility. That the time has come when 
every body can be a Burbank is not quite evident. Few people 
have the untiring patience to grow thousands upon thousands of 
plants just to get one that is suited to the purpose, or to under- 
stand just what they want, or know when they have secured the 
right element in the plant to set it out as a new creation. But the 
light is dawning, the apostles of new creations are multiplying 
and under difficulties are blazing the way for future horticulturists 
to follow the same trail, or blaze out one of their own that shall 
lead to ultimate triumj)h in the realization of the fact that they 
have perfected, changed, hybridized some new plant that placed 
beside its former relations does not seem like one of the family. 

The tlieory and practice of stock breeding, improvement and 
selection for certain types are well established and bj- crossing 
different breeds the qualities of one are combined with those- of 
the other and a new "type" is obtained. The "beef type" and 
the "dairy type" are now well known to people who a generation 
ago only knew the quality of a Texas steer by the length of his 
horns. 

In early times the process of "selection" only was used, and it 
took hundreds of years to search out the king plant ; by the system 
of the "survival of the fittest". Now by crossing species of plants 
of the same order, changes in hue, form, texture, growth and com- 
mercial value are obtained. It is the wisdom of the ages concen- 
trated in the epoch of the new era of plant development. 

In the method of cross-pollenization, two or more seed par- 
ents are prepared by first cutting off a large proportion, leaving 
not more than an eighth or tenth of the buds on the plant, so the 
whole force will be concentrated in the buds to be operated on. 
When they show signs of coming to bloom the emasculation is 
performed. With a sharp pen-knife the anthers, stamen and 
corolla are removed from the bloom left on the plant and the 
])right corolla being gone it is no more attractive to the bee that 
would bring the pollen haphazard from some objectional)le flower. 
Or the emasculated buds are covered with gauze or thin paper 
sacks so no intruder can approach the floral altar with strange 



GARDENHELPS 85 

fire. From the nnthers of a flower of a better plant the p )]len has 
been gathered and the fine p:;l]en grains caught in a glass recept- 
acle and then carefully dusted over the emasculated buds and the 
work of intelligent pollenization has l)een begun. Sometimes it 
is necessary that a camel's hair pencil shall be used to introduce 
the grains into the receptacle of the unpoUenized flower. If the 
work is carefully tione fructification immediately begins and the 
flower gives birth to a new seed, which in turn must be planted 
and the result is only known after one, two or three seasons wait- 
ing in patient expectation, sometimes only to be disappointed. 
The new seed may hark Inick to some of the indiscretional hal)its 
of its great grand-parents and the change may have to be gone 
over again : sometimes as high as 10,000 changes are made ])efore 
the right combiimtion is obtained; as many as this were manipu- 
lated by .Air. Burbank l)efi)re his famous potato was secured. 

It often occurs that "freaks" are developed and there seems 
at first to be no assignal)le reason. But the theory of accidental 
pollenizalion accounts for it. By some means a bee or other in- 
sect got some special pollen grains on its wings or ])ody and at 
the right time flew to another blossom and de})i)sited its precious 
grain that gave new form to the flower, or fruit, that so surprised 
you with its superior cpialities. 

Gathering and planting the new seeds, Avatching the seedlings 
as they develop, and selecting the one needed to cross again, and 
again, is the work of hybridizing. It is painstaking, patient, anx- 
ious lalior. l)ut amply repays all the expense of time and skill. 
These hints are given that possil)ly some one who reads these lines 
may be induced to make experiments along lines of least resistance 
and finally produce something worthy of liis day. 

"Some mute inglorious ]\Iilton here may rest. 

Some Cromwell guiltless of his countries blood." 

If you cannot originate, you can secure some of the new crea- 
tions, bud your trees to them and thus directly secure the benefits 
of the improvements in such fruits as the plumquot. Bartlett pears, 
fadeless flowers and yellow lilies, and many other worthy pro- 
ductions that ymi can grow while in your own way experimenting 
to produce new forms your ideas may suggest. 

Accidents sometinu\s happen to trees. We see them loaded 
with bloom and the promise of the crop is magnificent, but we are 
disappointed; nearly all the fruit drops. AVe think back and re- 



86 GARDENHELPS 

member alioiit the time the tree was showing its bank of showy 
blossoms, a blistering storm of wind and rain came and the pollen 
was destroyed ; in some places the frosts prevent proper polleniza- 
tion, and so nature has to withstand her rebuffs just as we mortals 
do, but she smiles and says the burden is lighter this year, so I 
can do better next. 

MULTIPLICATION BY CUTTINGS. 

The following list is intended to show at a glance what plants 
and trees are multiplied by cuttings. 

Figs — Either soft or mature wood, cut slips eight or ten 
inches long, plant so one bud will be out of the ground. 

Mulberries — Cuttings of mature wood, plant in February. 

Olive — Cuttings of mature, even old pieces of stumps, large 
chips with bark on planted so the shoots can push through. 

Pomegranate — Cuttings or by laying down a limb covering 
with earth, and cutting from parent tree when rooted. Seeds 
bring thrifty plants. 

Quince — Cuttings which are sometimes grafted. 

Grapes — Cuttings of three buds long, one left above the 
ground. 

Tomatoes — Cuttings T shaped, horizontal part in the soil. 

Currants — Both currants and gooseberries are made from 
hardened wood planted in moist soil. 

Blackberry — Root cuttings and suckers from the roots. 

Raspl)erry — Root cutting and tips from end of runners that 
have rooted. 

Loganberries — Root cuttings and cuttings of the vine and 
tips that have rooted at the end. 

Dewberries — Root cuttings and layers that have rooted. 

Strawberries — From runners, tip cuttings and divisions of 
plant. 

Cranberries— Layers and divisions- 
Begonias — From leaves. 

Verbenas — From layings cut from the parent plant. 

Sweet potato — Pieces of vines, both ends inserted in the soil 
to form an arch above ground. 



The important fact very often lost sight of in intensively cul- 
tivating the soil is that as fast as plant food is exhausted from 
the soil it must be renewed, by means of applications of fertilizers, 
either organic or inorganic. Barnyard manure and debris of any 
character that will impart food to the soil are organic. If mineral 
or inorganic sul)stances are used, they must be reduced liy acids, 
a process called acidulation. This reduces the solid chemical 
matter to li(tuitl form, the only form in whicli a plant can absorb 
or take up any fertilizer. If unacidulated hard substances are 
put into the soil, they must wait to be dissolved by the chemical 
action of the carbonic acid that comes in the rains or in irrigation 
water and often will wait for months and years before the plant 
can be benefited by them. Liming the soil is very important in 
soils that do not carry lime, as it is a solvent for many of the sub- 
stances already in the soil or those y<ui add mechanically and while 
not a direct plant food is a material that cannot be dispensed with, 
especially in sandy soils. And in stiff clay soil it is essential for 
its mechanical effect, in breaking up the clay so it can be more 
easily worked, and made more receptive to air and water. 

ANALYSIS OF FERTILIZERS. 

Sources of nitrogen and the per cent they contain showing 
the best material to procure to replenish the waste taken out by 
plants; Ammoniate 3.48, castor bean pomace 1.91. cotton seed meal 
1.91, fish 8.25, dried blood 1.98, waste of horse hoof 1.83, lobster 
shell 3.52. 

Substances furnisliing Phosphoric Acid: 

Apatite contains, per cent 36.08; bone lilack, 35.89; l)()ne 
meal, nitrogen. 4.12; phosphoric acid, 8.28 to 23.50; Carribean 
guano. 18.90; Cuban guano, 13.35; Mona Island. 21.88; Nassau 
phosphate, 34.37; Peruvian guano, 1G.26; S. Carolina rock, 28.93; 
Carolina rock dissolved, 15.20. 

Potassie sources: Carmallite, 13.68; cottonseed. 23.80 potash 
and 8.50 phos. acid; Kanit. 13.54; knigite. 8.42; muriate of potash, 
52.46; nitrate of potash. 45.19 and nitr;igen. 13.09; spent tan bark 
ashes, 2.04 and 1.61 phos. acid; sybarite, 16.65; wood ashes, 5.50, 



88 GARDENHELPS 

and phos. acid, 1.85; leached wood ashes, 1.10 and phos. acid 1.41. 

Nitrogenous fertilizing substances: 

Ammoniate ll.;^8 and p. a. 3.48; Castor pomace, 5.56 and 
I)Otash, 1.18 and p. a., 1.10; cotton seed meal, 6.66; dried blood, 
10.52; lish, 6.81 and p. a., 8.28; horse hoof, 18.25; lobster shell, 
4.50 and p. a., 8.52; meat scrap, 10.44; water sprats, 4.04; nitrate 
of soda, 15.75; sulphate of ammonia. 20.50; tankage, 6.82, and p. a. 
11.25; tobacco stems, 2.29 and potash, 6.44; wool waste, 5.64; 
corn cob ashes, potash, 28.30. 

Nitrogen is very essential in all organized life whether animal 
or vegetable. It is the basis of albumenoids in plants, the casein 
in milk, the fil)rin in blood. The various forms of nitrogen mean 
lis combination with other chemical elements: nitrogen as nitrates, 
introgen as ammonia and nitrogen as in organic matter — decay- 
ing substances. Nitrogen as nitrate is nitrogen combined with 
oxygen in such proportion as to form nitric acid. United with 
some other base as for instance soda or potash, it is nitrate of 
soda or nitrate of potash, lime and whatever the base may be. 
Nitrogen as ammonia means its combination with hydrogen in a 
l)roportion to form ammonia, one part nitrogen and three parts 
hydrogen ; this gas readily unites with different acids and forms 
sulphuric and nitric acids again forming ammonia salts. Animal 
and vegetable matter contain chemical constituents, carbon, 
hydrogen and oxygen. A large number of materials differing 
widely in their characteristics contain nitrogen in some form. 
Plants deriving their nitrogen from the soil receive it in .the form 
of nitrates that have been reduced so the plant can assimilate it. 
Nitrogen in organic matter is first changed by decay into ammonia 
and from ammonia into nitrates. It is often the case that the best 
forms of plant food are found in material that is not so costly nor 
so long in becoming available as in slowly decomposing forms as 
rock, hair and substances that stand chemical attack a long time. 
Nitrate of soda is 'the best form, for when pure it contains a 
larger per cent of nitrogen and is so chemically constituted that 
it immediately dissolves in moisture and the plant takes it up 
directly. Nitrate of potash or saltpetre furnishes potash in addi- 
tion to nitrogen. Dried meat or azotine is meat dried and ground 
without the bone and is an excellent source of nitrogen. Tankage 
is the dried refuse of slaughter houses and is usually classed as 
a nitrogenous substance, though it contains a fair per cent of 



GARDENHELPS 89 

potash. The waste from fish canneries is a good source of nitro- 
gen. "Menhaden pomace" made fr'jm fish refuse is a source and 
all fish refuse is advantageously secured in regions near the sea 
where the maxim of Franklin can he practically used: "A herring 
in every hill of corn." Leather meal, horn and hoof meal, cotton 
seed meal are all products obtained l)y steaming or grinding the 
substances mentioned and are among the variable sources of 
nitrogen. 

Nitrogen must be carefully used because when soluble in 
water it is easily movable in the soil and by rains can be washed 
beyond the reach of the plant and lost while the other elements 
phosphoric acid and potash, become fixed in the soil and remain 
sometimes in an unused state for a long time and of no service to 
the plant till acted on by lime or some solvent as the agent for 
converting it into a form the plant can take up. So nitrates are 
not applied in large quantities in the fall to lie in the ground all 
winter as is the (uise with barnyard manure. IMaterials that con- 
tain nitrogen in organic matter must wait in the soil. 

AVAILABILITY OF FERTILIZERS. 

In cold countries, where the ground is inactive a portion of 
the year through frost, applications of manures may be added 
prior to the closed season and will l)e in the soil to become active 
with the return of w^arm days. It is unwise to apply nitrogen 
when rains are abundant, because it is easily leached out and lost 
but 'Organic forms that must stay in the soil a long time in order 
to become available by being sufficiently rotted may be put in at 
any time. ^Materials like blood, fine ground bone and fish will 
decay in one season and be taken up by the plant, but horn, hoof, 
hair, leather, w^ool, etc., will require several seasons to complete 
their decaj" and become availalile to the plant. So of course rot- 
ting slowly only a small per cent of their content is given off at a 
favorable tinu^ and they must be applied in larger quantities. 

Phosphates. 

Phosphoric acid derived from phosphates means that the phos- 
phoric acid is united with some other material like lime, iron, 
alumina and form phosphates of lime, phosphate of iron, etc. Lime 
being the best form is more generally used as basic slag, which is 
a combination of lime with the phosphoric acid from iron in the 
making of steel, is united by fusing with fire and collects the 



90 GARDENHELPS 

phosphoric acid from the iron and makes a valuable powder that 
is readily taken up in the soil and by the plant. Mineral sub- 
stances as a rule do not yield up their phosphoric acid so it will 
become soluble in water, a condition that must obtain with all 
material intended as plant food. Bones of animals are a fertile 
source of phosphoric acid. Bones from the same animal diflfer 
in composition according to the age of the animal and the location 
in the carcass. Young bones are less rich in phosphates and richer 
in nitrogen and in older animals the order is exactly reversed. If 
bone is treated with diluted hydrochloric acid and the phosphates 
of lime dissolve, they leave a soft pulpy matter in its original 
shape but with the lime extracted. A similar condition obtains 
when the grain falls in the field, for lack of lime to sustain the 
weight of the head on the stem. If you burn bones, the heat drives 
off the organic matter and leaves the lime in dense and compact 
form, so it happens that the manner in which bones have been re- 
duced or their phosphates secured is governed largely by the 
method of reduction. Raw bone free from meat or fat should 
contain on an average of twenty-two per cent of phosphoric acid 
and four per cent of nitrogen, but its usefulness largely depends 
on the fineness to which it is reduced by grinding; the finer it is 
ground the cjuicker it will decay. Steamed l)one contains more 
phosphoric acid and less nitrogen than raw bone. It can be re- 
duced finer by pressure and mechanical manipulation than by 
grinding and is therefore directl}' more useful than the ground 
bone which if not fine must lay in the soil till sufficiently disin- 
tegrated to be taken up by the plant. It has been shown that in 
two seasons steamed bone will be taken up while ground bone 
sometimes takes as long as four seasons to be absorbed. Bone is 
the only substance containing phosphoric acid that is used directly 
or without the intervention of other chemicals to secure its phos- 
phoric acid. Bone black or animal charcoal is a source of phos- 
phoric acid and its first and chief purpose is to clarify sugar and 
then the material is used as chemical source of phosphoric acid. 
Only the best bones are used for this purpose, hence it contains 
the highest per cent of phosphoric acid. When received from the 
refineries it contains added vegetable matter but is charged with 
from thirty to thirty-two per cent of phosphoric acid. Bone ash 
comes from the south where bones are collected and burned and 
the ashes thus reduced are more easily transported. Good 



GARDENHELPS 91 

samples contain from twenty-five to thirty per cent. The phos- 
phates derived from bones are considered more nseful than the 
mineral substances from which phosphoric acid is obtained, as they 
are derived directly from organic materials. 

Mineral Phosphates. 
We have thus far spoken of phosphates derived from animal 
substances, but there is another class equally valuable, not com- 
bined with organic matter and generall}^ more compact in struc- 
ture. South Carolina rock or rock and river phosphates which 
do not ditfer materially though obtained from two sources, the 
land and the river, both contain about twenty-five per cent of 
phosphoric acid and a small per cent of other minerals. These 
phosphates when finely ground are called tioats, are applied di- 
rectly to the land needing phosphates and will dissolve in the 
soil after some time. Florida phosphates occur in differing forms : 
clay, pebble and rock taken from river beds. The soft or clay 
deposit yields aliout thirty per cent while the pebble when washed 
and crushed contains as high as forty per cent and the clean bould- 
er phosphates yield forty per cent and a better quality than the 
(^'arolina rock. Canada apatite is crystalized rock. It is expensive 
to mine but yields forty per cent of the mineral phosphate. Iron 
phosphate is the waste product from the manufacture of steel by 
the basic process, hence is called "basic slag", odorless phosphate 
and Thompson's phosphate meal. It is produced in large quan- 
tities in Europe and the "odorless" is an American product. It 
contains from fifteen to twenty per cent phosphate of lime, as 
lime is added in the process to concentrate the phosphoric acid 
when the iron is in process of melting; combined with bone meal 
it is particularly good for sandy soils. Guano has been used as a 
source of phosphoric acid, but later it has been better applied for 
its content of nitrogen, and Peruvian guano is now used for that 
purpose. These are all called "raw material" and if used without 
treatment by acidulation would remain a long time in the soil be- 
fore thej^ would be available plant food. All material to be useful 
must be by some means reduced to a liquid form in order that 
the plant ma.y be fed by it. 

Superphosphates . 

The raw materials we have mentioned exist in combination 
Avith lime and are divided into three classes, differing in their 



92 GARDENHELPS 

proportions of lime and called by the name the proportion indi- 
cates. "Tri-calic" "tri-basic", or three parts lime and one phos- 
phoric acid, is insoluble in water; the two part lime and one phos. 
acid is called "diabasic", is insoluble in water but can be taken up 
by the roots of the plant when moistened by the soil; the "mono- 
basic", or one lime and one phos. acid is completely soluble in 
water. The fourth form "tetrabasic" crumbles readily though 
not soluble in water and is soon availaljle. These combinations 
are called "superphosphates" and are formed by treating the raw 
material with sulphuric acid which will change the insoluble to 
soluble forms. The sulphuric acid removes the excess of lime from 
the phosphate and forms sulphate of lime which leaves the ma- 
terial a "monocalic" or one lime superphosphate. A superphos- 
phate is a union of a soluble phosphate with a phosphate of lime 
or what is commonly called gypsum or "land plaster". A phos- 
phate means any material containing a large quantitj^ of phos- 
phoric acid and by the process of acidulation already mentioned is 
changed to a superphosphate or a phosphate in a form the plant 
can absorb. In buying fertilizer be sure you make the distinction 
between phosphate and superphosphate. You might pay a high 
price for a fertilizer whose analysis showed a large amount of 
phosphoric acid, but it would have to lie in the soil a long time 
before the acid in the rains could change it to a form the plant 
could take up. But the superphosphate is immediately available 
because it has been divested of the excess of lime and made soluble 
in water. 

Superphosphates difiPer in their content of the required phos- 
phoric acid, depending largely upon the raw material they are 
made from. Those from organic materials like bone black and 
bone ash are richer in the phos. acid than from ground bones or 
mineral substances. If too much sulphuric acid is used in dis- 
solving bones they become gummy and the dry soluble p nvder 
you w^anted to procure is destroyed. The superphosphate from 
bone black is practically all soluble while those from mineral 
substances contain quite a p?r cent of nitrogen. When this is the 
case they are termed ammoniated superphosphates. Solu])le phos- 
phoric acid is valuable again on account of its ease of distribution 
through the soil, it being taken up by the water and distril)uted 
to the plant. The reverted is rich in content of the required food 
))ut the plant must go to it or go without, as the reverted remains 



GARDEN HELPS 93 

jr.st where it was placed in the soil. In the first instance the food 
goes to the roots, in the second the roots must iio to the food or u'o 
without and when it finds the food it must by the minute particles 
of moisture it can impose dissolve the meal. Thus superphosphates 
are more desiralde where immediate results are desired. If the 
reverted or insoluble phosphate is allowed to remain in the soil 
during rains and inactivity of the soil, it has the quality of l)eing 
retained rather than lieing washed or leached away, though this 
does not occiu- as disastrously as mhIIi nitrogen which is a silt 
washed beyond the reach of the plant. Phosphates become "fixed" 
in the soil liy combining with minerals already there. It is less 
useful in soils very sandy and not containing iron or lime. The 
value of "fixation" is that the soil is furnished with a gradually 
diminishing source of plant food and fertility; that is. it is not all 
given up at once but a supply is left to draw upan gradually. 

Potash Manures. 
In the early history of agriculture the supply of potash was 
chiefly derived from wood ashes either leached or dry to replenish 
the sum removed by plants and trees. Ashes were used because 
they "helped to make them grow." The reason was not always 
sought. At the present day, potash salts are mined principally in 
Strassfurt. Germany. The crude products shipped here are kanit 
and sylvanit and the nmnufactured articles are muriate of potash 
and sulphate of potash with magnesia. Potash combined with 
chlorine forms chloride of potassium or as it is commonly called 
"muriate of potash" and is a more desirable form than when com- 
bined with sulphuric acid which forms "sulphate of potash." 
Kanit is the crude product and contains only about 12 per cent 
potash. Combined with common salt, chloride of sodium, mag- 
nesium chloride and sulphate of magnesium and sulphate of po- 
tassium, its efit'ect on soil and plant is quite similar to muriate of 
potash because of the large quantities of chlorides it contains. 
Sylvanit is also a crude salt and while it shows sixteen per cent 
potash, it is not used as much as the other. Both kanit and sylva- 
nit are rather more classed as indirect manures on account of the 
solvent effect they have on other sul)stances, particularly phos- 
phates. Potash should be put in the soil a consideralile time prior 
to the need of the crop, that is, its application should be a sufficient 
time liefore planting any crop so it may be well incorporated with 
the soil. Then it will not l)e in heavy proportion in any part of 



94 GARDENHELPS 

the soil. An excess of magnesia is often more than beneficial to 
tender roots of plants, the same applies also to the chlorides. In 
countries where the heavy rains are not apt to wash it out of the 
soil, it is best to apply it at least six months ahead of the planting 
of the crop it is intended to benefit. Muriate of potash is the 
richest of Strassfurt products and contains about fifty per cent of 
actual potash or potassium oxide. Sulphate of potash is called 
the "high grade" and for crops like potatoes, beets and fruits is 
preferred to the muriate principally for its direct influence in 
producing a superior quantity of fruit. As it is placed on the 
market, it contains about the same per cent of potash as the 
muriate. 

"Double manure salts" contain in addition to sulphate of pot- 
ash, thirty per cent sulphate of magnesia. Magnesia is particular- 
ly useful on potatoes, but the double sulphate is more expensive. 
All these salts mentioned dififer in character and appearance, the 
sulphates being in form of white or grey powder, while the muri- 
ates are in form of grey or light brown crystals. All of them as 
they stand have a tendency to solidify, but with the exception of 
kanit they are easily pulverized. Crops most benefited by the ap- 
plication of potash salts are potatoes, grasses, and small and orch- 
ard fruits. 

To use manures successfully, one has to understand the nature 
of the ingredients. With nearly all nitrogenous manures it is 
wise not to apply them in any considerable amount before the 
crop is growing because the nitrogen is immediately available. 
Nitrogen in the form of ammonia, though completely soluble in 
water, is absorbed by the soil and requires some time to change it 
into a nitrate, the form in which the plant can take it. As we have 
shown, there is a wide range in the substances containing nitrogen 
and the length of time required for them to become available, as 
for instance the dii¥erence between blood and hair or leather, the 
latter needing a long time to reduce them to a condition of avail- 
ability. In the case of the phosphate manures, they, when reduced 
by acid to a soluble form are immediately available and must not 
be applied a long time before the plant requires them. Ground 
bone and course rock decay slowly and all such substances must be 
applied in the soil a long time before the plant can possibly re- 
ceive any benefit from them. While potash from the Strassfurt 
mine is soluble in water, it should be applied some time before the 



GARDENHELPS 95 

actual need of the plant to secure complete distril)u1i()n througli 
the soil. 

Crops growing on what is commonly called "poor soil" are 
as a rule greatly benefited by the application of nitrogen, while 
rich soils are more productive by application of phosphates and 
potash. Phosphates are best for heavy soils and nitrogen for light 
dry soils. Sandy soil is generally benefited by potash, in which 
it is usually deficient, while clay soil is generally supplied with 
sufficient quantities of potash. 

The method of growth of crops is an important factor in de- 
termining how manures should be applied. Crops, like the beet, 
carrot, parsnip and most root crops can go deep for their susten- 
ance, while shallow rooted plants like the strawberry, tomato and 
kindred plants are shallow feeders, so if the fertilizer were put 
in the soil deep down the shallow growing plants would find it 
beyond their reach. 

THE UNIT SYSTEM IN FERTILIZERS. 

The wholesale fertilizer trade now uses the unit system in sell- 
ing their goods; that is the unit is one per cent or twenty pounds 
per ton. For example : A manufacturer offers dissolved bone l)lack 
guaranteed to contain sixteen units of available phosphoric acid 
at 70 cents a unit (16 x ,$0.70=$11.2() per ton). 

A quotation of .$1.50 per unit available phosphoric acid means 
$1.50 for each twenty pounds contained in the material quoted. 

COMMERCIAL VALUATIONS. 

"Food for Plants" gives the following illustration for com- 
puting fertilizer values. Example : Nitrate of soda is guaranteed 
to be 95 per cent pure ; that is the total impurities in it amount 
to five per cent: .95 x 16.47 equals 15.64 per cent of nitrogen: 
15.64 X 15 cents— trade value for nitrogen — equals $2.34 value in 
one hundred pounds. $2.34 x 20 equals $46.80 the value of a ton. 

Fertilizers are sold as "high grade", "medium high", "med- 
ium grade", "low grade". In high grade, you get 19.60 pounds 
of plant food in a hundred pounds ; in low grade you get 12 p(mnds 
of plant food to the hundred. The percentage of phosphoric acid 
does not vary greatly in the different classes of fertilizer. The per- 



96 GARDENHELPS 

eentage of potash and nitrogen increases in higher grades. Hence 
the total amount of plant food in a hundred pounds increases in 
the higher grades with the increase of nitrogen and potash. 

The cost of one pound of plant food, whether nitrogen, phos- 
phoric acid or potash, is greatest in the low grade goods. The 
least amount paid for one pound of nitrogen in low grade goods 
is tw^enty cents, in high grade thirteen and one-third cents. Similar 
relations hold good in respect to the other grades of plant food. 
In general the higher the cost of the goods the lower the cost of 
each pound of plant food. It is unwise to buy "cheap" fertilizers. 

VALUE OF FARM MANURES. 

From careful experiments made by the University Experi- 
mental Station, the value of manure from cows per ton in nitrogen 
was found to be 51 per cent; in phosphoric acid, 35 per cent; in 
potash. 51 per cent ; total value $2.27. 

From horses alone the manurial value of a ton is $2.79. Ten 
horses in eleven days produced manure to the value of $4.71, or 
for each horse per day. 42 cents. 

Sheep produce one and one-half cents w^orth per day, wnth a 
low^ percentage of phosphoric acid but rich in other elements. The 
summary per ton in value of manurial constituents is : Horse, 
$2.79; cow. $2.27; sheep, $4.19; swine, $3.18. This of course 
does not include the mechanical value imparted to the soil and 
here is where the farm mamires have the advantage over the chem- 
ical fertilizers in relation to the physical changes made by each. 

WHAT THE PLANT TAKES FROM THE SOIL. 

When we know what the plant removes from the soil in its life 
course, from seed to maturity, we know wiiat to replace in order 
to keep the fertility of the land we are cropping up to standard 
so it wnll not disappoint us in returning its tribute to our expecta- 
tion and toil. There are, as we have previously shown, three prin- 
cipal ingredients or constituents of the soil that are absolutely 
needed in order that the crop we plant may do its best. If any 
one of the trio is lacking, the soil will only be as strong for its 
work as the least element contained in the soil is in evidence. It 
is the old illustration of the chain being no stronger than the 
weakest link. If there is a superabundance of nitrogen and a 



GARDENHELPS 97 

lack of phospliorie acid or potasli, the plant will express its life in 
going to tops and leaf, with but little fruitage. If the phosphoric 
acid is fairly in evidence with a lack of nitrogen, the plant will 
make a desperate attempt to produce untimely fruit, and leaves 
will be conspicuous liy their absence. If potash is needed (which 
is hardly ever the case in California, we are so near nature's store- 
house where she has but recently ground it down), the fruit will 
be inferior in quality and never attempt perfection. There are a 
host of side elements such as phosphorus, lime, magnesia and many 
others that have their place and bear about the same relation to 
the necessity of the crop as condiments, pepper and salt, do to 
the meal of the gardener. Lime, however, as before set forth is 
very essential and will in almost every instance in California soils 
(except the calcareous) assist the crop to find hidden in the soil, 
if already there, the desired morsel it is searching for. 

It must be rememl)ered the plant cannot change restaurants. 
It is dependent solely on what you bring to its needs after it has 
exhausted the supply nature placed there for it to begin its career. 
If, after repeated croppings, the platter should grow lean and 
the cupboard bare, some one must supply the lack. As before 
stated, there may be a partial supply, all bone and no bread, or all 
bread and no bone, (plants dearly love acidulated bone), and to 
know what you need you must know w^hat has been eaten up, 
and what must be supplied in order to make the meal a satisfying 
one. To assist you in determining what has been taken out of 
the soil by a crop you have raised we give the following table 
made from numerous experiments and tests from various State 
and Government Experimental stations: 



98 GARDENHELPS 

Pounds per Acre Phosplniric 

Name of Plant Nitrogen acid Potash 

Cabbage 218 514 125 

Cauliflower 202 265 76 

Tnrnips 187 426 74 

Carrots 166 190 65 

Corn 146 174 69 

Green Fodder 122 230 66 

Cucumbers 142 193 94 

Lettuce 41 72 17 

Onions 96 . 96 49 

Peas 153 69 39 

Potatoes 11!^» 192 55 

Sweet Corn 518 107 37 

Sorghum 446 561 90 

Sugar Beet 95 200 44 

Tobacco 127 148 33 

Tomato 185 136 72 

Wheat Ill 58 45 

Oats S9 96 35 

Rye • 87 76 44 

Rape 154 124 79 

Sojo Beans 207 87 62 

Vetch 149 113 35 

Cow Peas 171 169 64 

Barley 78 62 35 

Buckwheat 62 17 40 

WHAT THE PLANT WANTS. 

It is not only necessary to kuow what amount of nutrients the 
plant in its growth has taken out of the soil, but it is essential to 
know the proportion to again place in position so it can be well 
fed. The early growth of crops is needed as the early price is 
the best. We give in proportionate figures the requirements of 
different plants, and whether you give 2 pounds, 20 pounds or 
200 pounds the relative proportions are here given for the three 
elements. You can always, in sandy or loamy soil add lime with 
positive good results, and especially in clay soil. Give as much 
lime as j'ou do of the highest named ingredient. For instance, if 
an acre of calibage requires 200 pounds of nitrate of soda to 



GARDENHELPS 99 

furnish nitrogen ; 'AoO pounds of superphosphate to furnish phos- 
phoric acid and 100 pounds of sulphate of potash to furnish re- 
quired amount of potash, then add 350 pounds of lime. It is best 
to plow it in before you put in the other elements. The figures 
are given for the acre, but you can measure your plot, lot or tract 
and take the acre as the guide to the amount needed for a larger 
or smaller tract. 

FORMULAS : 

Nitrate Super- 

of Soda phospliate Potash 

Cabbage 200 lbs. 350 lbs. 100 lbs. 

Cantaloupes 400 lbs. 500 lbs. 200 lbs. 

Tomatoes 100 lbs. 400 lbs. 100 lbs. 

Sweet Potatoes (top di'essing) .200 lbs. 200 l!;s. 100 lbs. 

Strawberries, 200 lbs. 400 lbs. 100 lbs. 

Melons, two ai)plications 800 lbs. 800 lbs. 100 lbs. 

Potatoes 200 lbs. 300 lbs. 100 lbs. 

Corn 200 lbs. 400 ll)s. 200 lbs. 

THE USE OF NITRATE OF SODA 

Nitrate of Soda for use in all garden operations, raising nur- 
sery stock and stimulating leaf growth is most beneficial. 

The consensus of opinion as pul)lished by various experi- 
mental stations of the government give these conclusions. The 
agricultural authorities by careful experimentation establish the 
fact that 100 i)!)unds of Nitrate of Soda applied to the crops 
named below will produce increased yields as here given: 

Barley — increase 400 pounds grain. 

Corn — increase, 280 pounds grain. 

Oats — increase, 400 pounds grain. 

Eye — increase, 300 pounds grain. 

Wheat — increase, 300 pounds of grain. 

Potatoes — increase, 3,600 pounds of tubers. 

Hay — increase, 1,000 pounds cured hay. 

Cotton — increase, 500 pounds seed cotton. 

Sugar Beets — increase, 4,000 pounds in tubers. 

Beets— increase, 4,000 pounds in tubers 

Sweet Potatoes— increase 3,000 pounds in tubers. 

Cabbage — increase, 6,000 pounds. 



100 GARDENHELPS 

Carrots — increase, 7,800 pounds. 

Onions — increase 1,800 pounds. 

Turnips — increase, 37 per cent. 

Strawberries — increase, 200 quarts. 

Asparagus — increase, 100 bunches. 

Tomatoes — increase, 100 baskets 

Celery — increase. 30 per cent. 

Plants take up most of* their nitrogen during the early period 
of their growth. 

There is no danger of the nitrate being leached out of the 
soil where irrigation is the practice, as the moisture seldom reach- 
es deeper than the root system of the plants. Nitrate of Soda 
looks much like common salt and if cattle can get to it they some- 
times eat it in quantities sufficient to injure them. Soak the empty 
bags in a barrel of water; it will be sutficient to make good liquid 
fertilizer. 

Break all lumps with l)ack of shovel on the barn floor so it 
will dissolve evenly. If you mix it with superphosphates or otln-r 
fertilizer, put the desired quantity of each in separate piles on a 
floor, then mix all evenly. Nitrate of Soda, unlike sulphate of 
ammonia, dried blood and other mixed fertilizers, can be mixed 
with lime or ashes without loss of nitrogen. Nitrate of Soda costs 
from 3 to 5 cents per pound. If 100 pounds are to be applied it 
should be divided into two periods of application several weeks 
apart. 

SOIL INOCULATION OR NITROGEN CULTURE 

The new- is ever catching the heels of the past. It is not 
many years since the thought was uppermost that the soil was 
simply a mass of inert particles that were acted on by the rains 
and the seed and only revivified by the action of the plow and 
the harrow. There was not knowledge of the germ theory as 
relates to soil. It was confined to the realm of vaccination to 
improve or destroy functional diseases. But the wand of knowl- 
edge, rich with the spoils of research, has unfolded to the won- 
dering eyes of the world that soils contain living bacterial germs 
that can be used to improve the quality and quantity of crops. 
They can be taken from the fertile fields and placed in the sterile 
and presto! the change is truly magical. 

Both with green manuring and the use of "cultures" is the 
object 6f increased fertilization accomplished. The leguminous 



GARDENHELPS 101 

plants STich as peas, beans, vetehes. lir.rr clover, cdw peas and 
fenngreek possess the quality of nitrogen gatherers fi-om the at- 
mosphere. Avhere 90 per cent 'of it resides and must by snne means 
be extracted and put into the soil in order to keep up the supply 
of nitrogen yearly taken out by the crops. , Nitrogen being the 
most costly element the gardener or farmer has to supply, these 
plants are used as cover crops to collect through their system of 
leaves, branches and r(^ots the nitrogen in the atmosphere and 
store in nodules on their roots, whence in turn they give it to 
the soil. Such crops as WhippoorAvill Peas. White Canadila and 
Scotch Blue Peas are sown lu'oadcast or drilled in in the orchards 
or tracts of land that need rejuvenation, and the etifect is the 
same, only magnified, as in the plowing under of clover after 
land has lain fallow. 

The bacterial germs discovered in unlimited quantities aid 
the leguminous plants very materially in their work of returning 
to poor impoverished soil a copious supply of nitrogen from the 
air. and making good soil more productive. They supplant arti- 
ficial nitrogenous manures and are easily handled. 

The method of inoculation is extremely simple. The seed is 
moistened in a solution of the cultures you obtain from the gov- 
ernment or from seedsmen who keep them. They usually come 
in dry cotton, as they can be transported more easily this way. 
When the seed is moistened as per directions which accompany 
the package and then permitted to dry. it has been inoculated 
with the bacterial germs that will when put in the soil and cov- 
ered bring to life millions of minute organisms that will cause 
the roots of the plants to respond to the action of the germs and 
form nodules filled with nitrogen. If you were to see the difiPer- 
ence in size, evidence of vigor and prodigious growth between the 
plant that had been grown in inoculated soil and the one not so 
grown, your surprise would l)e bordering on amazement. 

Soil for instance from an inocnlated field of alfalfa taken to 
a field of poor sickly-growing alfalfa, if sufficient water is at hand 
and reasonably fair conditions ol)tain, would immediately stimu- 
late the growth and revive the drooping field. Soil inoculation 
is one of the innovations of this progressive age that is liringing 
the world to understand that the occupations of the agriculturist 
and horticulturist are along truly scientific lines and producing 
beneficial results. 



Insecticides and Fungicides 



INSECTICIDES. 

In a country where almost uninterrupted conditions exist for 
perpetually producing insect life, the wonder is that there are not 
more insects to destroy garden and tield crops. But it must be 
remembered that nature ever strives to maintain a balance and 
permit no more injurious insects than can be kept in abeyance 
by predaceous and parasitic insects, that in turn prey on the 
(^nemies of vegetation. It is only when by some means the bal- 
ance is disturbed or upset that some bug, worm or fly, liecomes 
unusually active and conse(|uently destructive. Then it is that 
artificial remedies other than those supplied by nature are called 
in requisition. These in the form of sprays, baits, emulsions, dust- 
ings and repellants, to be successful must be used with TIMELI- 
NESS, THOROUGHNESS and PERSISTENCY. If you can use 
a timely repellant and keep the enemy away, it is far better than 
to have to use more drastic measures involving time, expense and 
more danger to the plant. 

There are two general classes of insects you w^ill have to be 
ready to fight. To avoid going into a labyrinth of entomology, 
which would reciuire a volume to merely outline, we will forego 
the scientific appellations and divide them into two classes, to-wit : 
BITING and SUCKING insects. A biting insect flies or crawls 
on the plant, is not stationary but constantly moving and feeding 
on the plant. A sucking insect punctures the tender bark and 
inserts its beak or mouth parts and sucks the life sap from the 
plant. It will be seen that different methods must be used in 
any work of eradication. Any insecticide put on the OUTSIDE 
OF THE PLANT would fall harmless from the back of the insect 
Hiat had his bill fastened in the plant and was getting his suste- 
nance from the sap. The first thing to know is how the enemy 
feeds. Is he chewing and leaving the debris behind him as evi- 
dence of his presence? If so, you must feed him something that 
M'ill kill him, and at the same time not injure the plant beyond 
repair. If he is a sucking insect you must use something that will 



GARDEN HELPS 103 

destroy him h\ CONTACT; when the liquid strikes him it must 
be of a nature that will destroy him and not the plant. 

Having- thus briefly laid down the rule and reason for the 
practice, we proceed to more specific details ahmg these remedial 
lines. 

REPELLANTS. 

A repellant is a mixture of ingredients that are so ol)noxious 
to an insect that it will avoid all possible contact with them, and 
if these can l)e successfully used the danger is easily averted 
because the enemy does not storm the citadel. The list is not a 
long one, and we give those most easily obtained and used. 

Unslaked lime scattered under vines and plants will dispel 
slugs, snails or roaches. Most crawling insects avoid lime. Coal 
oil and ashes mixed and scattered under [)lants repel insects. 
Snuff, sulphur and lime mixed and dusted under and over the 
plants and carbolic acid mixed with lime and then dried to a 
powder are excellent repellants for nearly all caterpillars. 

Other preventatives, though not classed as repellants are the 
various ways of trapping insects: laying bones where ants can 
find them and when completely covered dropping into hot water; 
placing boards, sacks or piles of refuse where bugs, criidcets and 
roaches will crawl under and into them and when trapped de- 
stroying by any easy means at hand. Tn this connection the burn- 
ing of tar paper, (or coal tar fumes) is an expedient commonly 
used and successfully employed against aphis, a species of suck- 
ing insect, that lives on the underside of leaves and is difficult to 
reach with ordinary sprays and emulsions. 

Baits are made by chopping grass or green leaves quite fine 
and mixing one ounce of Paris green or London purple with 8 
ounces of the chopped leaves; add enough syrup to work into 
balls which are spread about in the garden to catch wire worms, 
beetles and crickets. When grasshoppers become epidemic use 
instead of the leaves, bran and middlings; 40 pounds bran, 15 
pounds middlings and 20 pounds ars(Miic ; syrup (any thick kind), 
2 gallons; mix w^th soft water to a paste and scatter where the 
pests are abundant. A pint of crude carbolic acid mixed with 50 
pounds of lime or g.ypsum — land plaster — then dried to a pDwder 
and thrown over trees troubled with curculio has ])een found to 
be a repellant. To l)urn webs of worms and caterpillars that 
weave tents and hang themselves in the trees and on weeds, take 



104 GARDENHELPS 

a torch made of rags wound around a sticdv and dipped in kerosene. 
One ounce of copperas — (blue stone) dissolved in a pail of water 
will destroy insects at the roots of plants or trees. 

Flooding beds infected with ants, wire worms and grubs, 
keeping the water on for twenty-four hours will destroy the in- 
sects. The water must be kept in by basining — piling up the earth 
on the outside in form of ridge to hold the water where the worms 
or insects may be working. 

PARIS GREEN 

This preparation can be applied either dry or in form of spray. 
The dry formula is Paris green eight ounces, flour, lime or road 
dust five pounds Avell mixed and dusted dry on the plants or trees 
Avhen plant or tree is damp. The wet formula is also used against 
codlin moth, canker worms, caterpillars and any biting insects : 
Paris green, five ounces, lime, six pounds and water fifty gallons. 
Paris green is a metallic preparation and sinks to the bottom of 
the mixture if not kept constantly stirred. 

It can be used in connection with Bordeaux mixture and thus 
be of double service as an insecticide and fungiside combined. 
Place five ounces of Paris green in fifty gallons of the Bordeaux 
solution. 

ARSENITES 

Dissolve four pounds of sal soda crystals in water enough to 
cover them, add one pound of white arsenic and boil the mixture 
till clear, then add enough water to replace amount evaporated to 
make one gallon. Use one pint of this solution in fifty gallons of 
water using it as a spray with either Bordeaux or distillate. 

KEROSENE EMULSION 

Kerosene one quart, one and a half pounds of whale oil (pre- 
ferable) Babbitt's, ivory or other good soap, soft water one gallon. 
Shave the soap into hot water and churn through a hand force 
pump until it is emulsified. Dilute with two and a half gallons 
of water making the mixture one part kerosene to fourteen parts 
of water, or a seven per cent solution. 

Two gallons of water will give an eight per cent solution ; one 
and a half gallons will give a nine per cent solution ; one gallon 
of water produces an eleven per cent solution ; two quarts a fifteen 
per cent solution. It is best to begin with the standard seven per 



GARDENHELPS 105 

cent solution (few plants -will stand the stronger solution). This 
is used for scale and aphis and all sucking insects. 

BI-SULPHIDE OF CARBON 

This volatile liquid which is as infiamniahle as gasoline is 
used in destroying insects in stored grain, Aveevil in peas and 
beans, or worms in potatoes. In stored grain it is poured down 
tubes into the bins. It can be poured in gopher holes in the 
ground and the holes closed with wet soil. The vapor flows down 
and kills the rodent. To destroy life it requires one teaspoonful 
of the liquid to each cubic foot of bin space where grain or peas 
are stored. A spoonful poured down a hole made near the roots 
of a tree infected with wooly aphis will destroy them; in ants' 
nests, gopher holes and mole runs it is a sovereign remedy. 

BORDEAUX MIXTURE 

Bordeaux mixture is composed of Iilue-stone— copper sul- 
I)hate — four pounds, (juick lime four pounds or if stronger is 
i; ceded up to six pounds, water forty to fifty gallons, as per 
strength required. Dissolve the blue-stone in crock of water, 
slake lime in enough water to make cream of lime, pour both to- 
gether at one time into a wooden vessel, stirring vigorously as 
you add the water. It costs less than one cent a gallon and is very 
useful against all fungus diseases of plants, shrubs, or fruit trees, 
especially for curl leaf in peaches, shot hole fungus in plums and 
almonds. For peach trees which are especially tender, the mixture 
is some times made weaker: a 3-9-50, 8 bluestone, 9 pounds lime, 
50 gallons of water instead of the 4-4-40 or 4-6-50 mixture. The 
addition of more lime is to prevent burning of foliage. When 
Paris green is used with it, it should not be stirred in until just 
before using. 

COPPER SOLUTION 

This is used to spray the ground around tomato plants, to 
prevent blight and to cure it when it appears. Four ounces of 
bluestone in fifty gallons of water ; drench the soil with it before 
planting the tomatoes. 

AQUIS AMMONIA SOLUTION 

For plants you do not wnsh to discolor with lime and blue- 
stone, take copper carbonate six ounces, strong aqua ammonia 
(26 deg.) two quarts, water fifty gallons. Mix the copper carbon- 



106 GARDENHELPS 

ate to a paste with soft water and dilute the ammonia with one- 
half gallon of water, stir in the copper mixture till it is well dis- 
solved making two gallons of stock solution, put in a glass ])ottle 
with rubber stopper. When used, dilute each quart of the above 
with six gallons of water. 

CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE 

This is used to disinfect scabby potatoes. Put the potatoes 
in a sack, suspend in a barrel and use two ounces of the corrosive 
sidilimate in thirty gallons of water, soak the tubers in the liquid 
for two hours before cutting into seed pieces. This is a violent 
poison, so great caution must be used in handling it. 

LIME, SULPHUR AND SALT 

Lime and sulphur wash is excellent for winter application in 
California to destroy pernicious (San Jose) scale. Use unslaked 
lime twenty-one pounds, flour of sulphur eighteen pounds, wa- 
ter fifty gallons. IMake a paste of the sulphur in cold water then 
stir the same into fifteen gallons of boiling water, add the lime 
and stir constantly while it boils. Boil moderately for forty min- 
utes and as it boils add enough water to make fifty gallons. Spray 
while hot.. This is used against scale, plum pocket, leaf curl and 
blackknot and kindred diseases of trees. This is an easier formula 
that the old style ''lime sulphur and salt." 

LYE AND SULPHUR 

This formula is used against mites and spiders on plants, 
citrus and deciduous trees. The sulphur can be used dry on trees 
and plants afflicted with mites. Take ten pounds of sulphur and 
mix to a paste in a barrel with a little w^ater, a gallon or more, 
add ten pounds of lye and as the lye boils the sulphur, add water 
to keep it from burning or caking, dilute to make a barrel of 
spray. 

ROAD DUST 

When melon vines are afflicted with black greasy aphis, caused 
by neglecting too long before destroying them, gather up some 
pailsful of dry dust and sprinkle on the vines until they are com- 
pletely covered, then turn the under side up and dust them tho- 
roughly, leave it on twent,y-four hours, then spray the vines with 
clean cold water and the aphis will be destroyed if the work is 
well done. 



GARDENHELPS 107 

BUHAC 

This is a p:)W(ler made I'rmn a very oniaiiieiital tloweriiig 
plant that grows sph^ididly in California and should be in evi- 
dence in every garden, 'Tyrethrum cinerarifolia'' — -just call it 
bullae plant. The home grown variety is apt to be best as it has 
not lost its strength by age. A light brown powder is made from 
Ihe flower buds, and while poisonous to insect life is not consid- 
ered so to the human family. It is used dry and in this form is 
ileadh' against thrips and lice on roses and other phmts infested 
with them; also for aphis on cabbage and melons or on any plant 
in the garden troul)led l)y them. It of course must be applied, 
as any other powder you wish to adhere to the plant, when the 
plant is damp. You can use a diluter such as Hour or dry road 
dust with any poison used in the proportion of one part to from 
six to thirty of the diluter. 

As a fumigator liuhac may be spread on hot coals, held in a 
pan — the better way is to moisten it and mould it into balls and 
place on the coals, it will last longer and give better results. In 
this form it is used against mosquitoes and Hies wnth good results. 

As a decoction, the whole buhac flowers are treated with boil- 
ing water and left to steep, preventing evaporation. Do not boil 
the flowers, it destroys their value. Water extract can also be 
made by pouring 2 quarts of hot water through half a pound of 
pyrethrum, in a bag, then adding cold water encnigh to make two 
gallons. This is eft'ective against cabbage worms and aphis. 

Fumigation for sucking insects like lice, aphis, melon aphis 
and mealy bugs, is done by covering the plant and burning the 
buhac under it. 

TOBACCO 

Tobacco stems are used for smudging under plants and in 
closed houses where you are raising plants. The stems are damp- 
ened and put on coals of flre. Also boil the stems or dust thorough- 
ly and strain ; then add cold water until the decoction contains 
two gallons of li(iuid to one pound of tobacco. 

HOT WATER. 

This simple remedy is one of the most useful and if you are 
provided with a spraying apparatus by which you can put it on 
the plant up to a heat of 125 degress it is death to all insects it 
comes in contact with and is one of the very best contact sprays. 

Salt and water can be used with excellent effect on cabbage, 



108 GARDENHELPS 

cauliflower and broccoli. Sprinkled or sprayed into the heads, 
it is a sure remover of lice and aphis. 

REMEDIES FOR EACH PARTICULAR PEST 

We give the remedy best known to destroy insects working 
on plants. The list includes both for the niandibulae (biting 
insects) and those which suck their food, known as true bugs. 

ANGLEWORMS. 

Angle Worms sometimes destroy plants by burrowing. Lime 
water in the soil burns them; bi-sulphide of carbon used by driv- 
ing down iron pin and pouring the liquid in the hole so made, then 
covering it with moist earth fills the soil and destroys insect life 
of any description. It is intlammable like kerosene and should not 
be used near a light, unless you wish to use it as you would 
kerosene poured into the soil and fired. 

ANTS. 

Use the bi-sulphide of carbon or kerosene lighted in the bur- 
I'ows. A teaspoonful of the bi-sulphide in a hole six inches deep 
made Avith a picket pin, then closed, is a remedy where ants bur- 
row in lawns. 

In strawberry beds and places where they are burrowing at 
the roots make a basin of earth around the plant or .bed and keep 
filled with water for 24 hours. Do not keep the water on longer at 
one time, it might injure the plant. 

APHIS OR PLANT LICE 

These occur on melons, cabbages, turnips and various plants 
in the form of small green, black or purple lice. They cover the 
leaves and stems and sometimes the entire plant. Use hot water 
np to 125 degrees Fahrenheit on cabbage, cauliflower and similar 
plants on which they feed. I^se on cauliflower quite strong brine 
then wash off with fresh water. Wash them ofif by force with 
water from the hose. Use on plants that will bear it kerosene 
and water. One part kerosene to ten parts w^ater. Cover melons 
or kindred plants entirel,y with road dust for 24 hours, then wash 
off and the aphis Mall disappear. Bi-sulphide of carbon may 
also be used against the plant lice family, by covering the hill 
of vines with a tub or small low tent so the fumes cannot escape ; 
putting earth around the bottom after putting in a small dish 
containing a tablespoonful of the licpiid. In evaporating, it de- 



GARDENHELPS 109 

stroys the insects. This phm can be used when the liee are on the 
underside of the leaves and cannot be reached by other means, 
but generally to turn the vines over and cover with dust will 
remove them if thick enough and left on sufficient time. Coal 
tar fumes, burning tar paper under vines, are useful remedies 
against nearly all insects. 

CATERPILLARS 

These hairy, crawling insects are the larvae of butterflies, the 
best known being the "army worm" the larvae of the l)utterfly 
known as Lucania unipunctata, the fore wings being pictured with 
spots. These pests appear in myriads, when it happens that the 
conditions are unfavorable for the natural enemies to keep them 
down. They devour everything in sight in the line of vegetables 
and are an illustration of what would happen if permitted to go 
unmolested. As they are biting insects, remedies must be used 
that wnll kill them by dusting or spraying the plants with some 
poison such as Paris green or London purple, both preparations 
of arsenic. If used dry, take one part of the arsenical prepara- 
tion to fifty parts flour, air slaked lime, road dust or wood ashes. 
In using the dry preparations the best time to apply the dust is 
when the plants are damp. This is the strongest dry mixture 
recommended and some plants will not stand it so strong, even 
100 to 200 parts of the diluter being sufficient. If used wet in 
form of spray to treat tomatoes, potatoes and other plants, the 
poison must be mixed with lime to prevent burning the foliage, 
and it must be kept stirred up or the metallic poison will sink to 
the bottom and leave the water on the top. This would injure 
both ways; j'ou would waste time in putting the water on, and 
the poison would be so strong in the bottom of the liarrel it would 
kill everything it touched in the form of plant life. Not more 
than one pound of the poison to 250 gallons of water, and for trees 
where codlin moth is to be killed 300 gallons of w^ater should be 
used. If the Arsenate of Lead is used— a compound that stays 
on better and lasts longer, one pound in 75 galhms of water is 
used. The above remedies are employed against all biting insects 
whether on plants or trees, only reciuiring judgment as to the 
amount when a plant is tender or of stronger nature and growth. 

This treatment applies to all caterpillars, corn worms, tomato 
worms, measuring worms, roaches and beetles, cucumber wn)rms 
and 3'ellow bugs (that attack all the melons, squash and pumpkins) 



110 G A RD EN H E L PS 

harlequin or calico bugs, snout beetles, slugs and snails, in fact all 
the running, creeping, crawling things on top of the earth that 
bite and eat ar/ay the plant instead of sucking only the sap. The 
monstrous green caterpillars, the larvae of giant Cecropia moth, 
can best be disposed of by hand picking, for while large and for- 
midable they are not generally numerous. 

CUT WORMS 

These members of the caterpillar family are not hairy and 
range in color from a dirty grey to a dirty yellow. They hide in 
the daytime and wdien it is too warm to be above ground, at the 
base of a plant and feed on it but at night come out and fill up 
on everything in sight, so of course can be destroyed by the same 
remedies used against their hairy cousins. Sometimes we have an 
epidemic of "climbing cut worms," the larvae of the moth known 
as the "Carneades scabens" and sometimes called army worms, 
they are so destructive. These worms do not like potash, espec- 
i;dly kanit, so its use in the soil generally serves the good purpose 
of cleaning them out and at the same time furnishes the needed 
supply. 

Heavy doses of lime in the soil are obnoxious to all root feed- 
ing insects, cut worms, wnre worms, erawigs, sow^ bugs, slugs and 
snails that keep in or close to the surface and feed on, erode and 
girdle plants. The asparagus beetle comes in this class, though 
he comes up on the plant and feeds on the very tender shoots. 
The Avhite grub, often seen curled up when moving manure piles 
is a mischievous enemy, l)ut is adverse to liming. Always use 
unslaked lime for all purposes where it is to penetrate the soil; 
the air slaked will do as a dilutent or repellant, but its most 
caustic quality is needed where you wash to destroy insects of any 
kind in the soil. IMost of these earth worms come out at night and 
if bait made of l)ran or poisoned clover, chopped grass or leaves 
is used it will kill many. Traps like pieces of board, rags or re- 
fuse under which they can crawl will collect many of them. 

POD RUST, 

" Anihracnose" or pod rust attacks string beans, showing in 
reddish brown spots. Lima beans are also attacked by a felt coat- 
ing on the pods and the young shoots and leaves are also injured. 
The remedy is to use the Bordeaux on first appearance, and it 
may require several applications to entirely eradicate either dis- 



G A R D E N H E L PS 111 

ease. If the beans mildew, dry sulplmi- sliould he ai);)lied nn the 
first appearance of tlie dinvny lookiiiii' mould. 

BEET DISEASES. 

Leaf spot hi'gins with an ash grey CDloring of tlu' leaf that 
finally becomes ragged and dead. Root rot and scab (same as 
attacks potatoes) are treated with application of Bordeaux. Tn 
ease of scab, rotate and plant in a diiferent place next crop. 
Afler adding lime to the soil, work it in instead of leaving it 
above. To sweeten the soil, it requires about 75 bushels to the 
acre. The lime is a remedy for the similar disease in radish, 
turnip and kindred plants. If you have fed the stock the scabby 
roots you may expect the return of the disease in liie manure, 
which can be cured by mixing it with lime before putting it in 
the soil. 

Celery sun-seald appears in yellow spots on the leaf which 
later turn brown and die. It is cured I)y application of Bordeaux. 

MILDEW 

Another class of plant disease is mildew, relative to the mould 
you see on mouldy bread. It is successfvdly treated with sulphur 
dusted on dry. Especially peas and beans in very warm weather, 
are apt to mildew, fn planting the peas it is well to sprinkle some 
sulphur in the drills where and when you plant, and after coming 
up if any sign of the disease shows on the leaves, dust with the 
dry tlour of sulphur. It is used Avith telling effect against all 
plants, trees aiul shi'ubs that are troubled with the mite and red 
spider family. It nmst be dusted on when plants are wet and 
when it is likely to be a day of full sunshine, as it re(piires the 
heat of the sun to raise the fumes that destroy the insects. If 
made into a spray, it has to be dissolved by heat; or after being 
mixed to a paste with cold water caustic soda (concentrated lye) 
is added and it boils or dissolves the sulphur much as water slakes 
lime. Enough water nmst be added (as it cooks in the potash) 
to keep it from burning or forming into a solid cake. This sulphur 
spray can also be used in connection with the fungicides as before 
luentioned, in a similar manner, where mites and fiuigus are work- 
ing on the same plant or tree. Sulphur should never be used as 
a means of fumigation except in rooms where the object is to de- 
stroy insect life, in stored articles or to rid buildings of roaches, 
l)ugs or moth. It cannot be used as a fumigator to kill insects on 



112 GARDENHELPS 

plants, as it will kill the plant as well as the insects. For the 
purpose of fumigation, plants can be covered and cyanide of 
potassium dropped into sulphuric acid will produce deadly fumes 
that will kill insects, and if used in the right proportion will not 
kill the plant. The method is used in killing scale on trees. Sul- 
phur as found on the market is largely adulterated if cheap goods 
are purchased. 

FUNGUS 

A fungus is some disease either transmitted from other plants, 
carried by wind or transmitted by insects, but generally an in- 
herent trouble arising from the disturbance of life cells by other 
organisms that enter the life functions of the plant. It may be 
slow in progress, or its work suddenly destructive ; the plant may 
linger in distress struggling for life or it may be suddenly cut off 
by undiscovered causes. Most of the known diseases are well 
defined and remedies can be applied to save and restore, but of 
course there is consequent loss. As with the insect trouble it is 
best to nip the evil in the bud, and so fungicides are used to first 
give relief and prevent the appearance of deadly disease, whether 
above or beneath the surface. The remedies are used both wet 
and dry, but generally in the form of sprays. 




Calendar of Operations 

ESPECIALLY ADAPTED TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 



JANUARY. 

Flower Garden — Continue to plant lilies. All kinds of evergreen and de- 
ciduous shrubs can now he planted. The planting of hyacinths, tulips, narcissi, 
etc., should be completed this month. Hardy annuals may be sown out-of-doors, 
and, where artificial heat is obtainable, half-hardy animals may be sown. A 
hotbed of stable manure is easily prepared by piling it 4 or 5 feet in height, well 
watered and trampled down, over which place a large box or frame, with glass 
sash, taking care to air and sweeten the bed well before using. 

Vegetable Garden — For main crop sow broccoli, carrot, chicory and jiarsnip. 
At the end of the month, in warm, sheltered situations, early Rose potatoes may 
be planted. Plant asparagus, horseradish and rhubarb roots. These all require 
deeply worked ground. Dress beds already planted with about 3 inches of well- 
rotted manure. Cucumbers, eggplant, melons, peppers, squashes and tomatoes 
may be sown under glass for after-planting. A safe plan is to sow about 5 
seeds of each variety on reversed pieces of sod, about 4 inches square. On plant- 
ing in the ground, insert the sod with the growing plants and firm the soil in 
the usual way. By this method the growing plants will suffer no injury. Stick 
and hill up peas and other crops requiring it, and attend strictly to cleanliness. 

FEBRUARY. 

F/ourr Garden — General planting of evergreens and shrubs should be com- 
pleted as soon as possible. Also finish planting lilies, anemones and ranunculi. 
Commence planting gladiola bulbs for succession. Sow hardy annuals out-of- 
doors, especially sweet peas, and half-hardy annuals as recommended for last 
month. This is the best month in which to sow acacia seeds. Soak for 24 hours 
before sowing, or where practicable, spread dry leaves or bushes over the beds 
after sowing and watering and set fire to them. This is the best manner of sow- 
ing all hard tree seeds. 

Vegelahle Garden — This and the next month will be the busiest of the year 
in this department, as nearly all crops may be sown in these two months. Con- 
tinue planting asparagus and other roots as recommended for last month. Plant 
main crop of potatoes. Attend to weeding and hilling up. Thin out turnips, 
carrots and other root crops requiring it. 

MARCH. 

Floiver Garden — Continue planting gladioli bulbs for succession. All hardy 
and half-hardy annuals may be sown in the open ground this month. Alter- 
nanthera and other border plants can be planted with safety, as all danger from 
even slight frost is now over. 

Vegetable Garden — Nearly all vegetable seeds may be freely sown this 
month. Plant out cucumbers, melons and other plants previously sown under 
glass. Hill up rows, keep down insects, slugs and vermin, and attend strictly to 
cleanliness. 



114 GARDENHELPS 

APRIL. 

Floix'er Garden — Plant dahlias, gladioli, tuberoses, tigridias, tuberous bego- 
nias and all summer-flowering bulbs. Continue sowing hardy and half-hardy 
annuals. Watch rose-bushes, and if troubled with green aphis, use tobacco dust 
freely. 

VegetaJ;lc Garden — Plant out eggplant, pepper, tomato and sweet potato 
plants, the latter in light, rich soil, well worked, in rows 6 feet apart, and 2 feet 
in the rows, and keep the soil well worked. Cultivate well and hill up as re- 
quired. 

MAY. 

Flovcer Garden — As hyacinths, tulips, narcissi, etc., die down, the bulbs 
should be dug up, and stored away in a cool, dry place till fall, when they may 
be replanted. The vacancies thus created should be filled with other flowering 
plants. Halfhardy and other annuals may still be sown, and summer-flowering 
bulbs be planted. The garden should now be brilliant with flowers, and all sow- 
ing, planting and general cleaning up should be completed this month, ready for 
the summer season. 

Vegetable Garden — Pinch out points of shoots of cucumbers, melons, squash, 
etc., as soon as they commence flowering. Sow vegetable seeds for succession, and 
keep surface of soil well broken. 

JUNE. 

Flovcer Garden — Trim edgings of borders and hedges, and carefully attend 
to watering. Dahlias and gladioli may still be planted. Sow eucalyptus and 
cypress seeds for winter planting. 

Vegetable Garden — Hill up all growing crops and stick pole-beans and tall 
peas as required. 

JULY. 

Flozver Garden — Continue to dig up and store bulbs as they ripen. Trim 
edgings and hedgerows and sow perennial flower seeds in shady situations. 
Continue sowing, eucalyptus and cypress seeds. 

Vegetable Garden — Cultivate well between the rows. Sow vegetable seeds 
for succession. If manure is used during this hot month, it should be in liquid 
form. 

AUGUST. 

Floii'er Garden — This Is the best month in the year in which to sow hard\' 
perennials. Most varieties if sown this month will flower the next year. Also 
sow calceolaria, cineraria, pansy and primula seeds. Continue sowing eucalyptus 
and cypress seeds. 

Vegetable Garden — Plant second crop of potatoes. Sow cabbage, cauliflower 
and spinach for main crops. 

SEPTE3IBER. 

Flourr Garden — Commence planting hyacinths, tulips, anemones and other 
Dutch bulbs toward the end of the month. Prick oflf calceolarias, cinerarias and 
primulas sown last month, into small pots, and continue sowing same for sue- 



GARDENHELPS 115 

cession. Paiisies can be grown better transplanted into a vveil-manured bed tlian 
in pots, as they are not so liable to be attacked by the red spider. Pansy seed may 
be sown for succession until the end of November. Also sow all the hardy an- 
nuals and perennials. 

Vegetable Garden — Many varieties of vegetable seeds may be sown this 
month. Plant out cabbage and cauliflower plants sown in July. 

OCTOBER. 

Flo=iver Garden — Hyacinths and other Dutch bulbs should be planted freelv 
this month; also early lilies. Cineraria and primula seed may still be sown for 
late flowering. Continue sowing hardy annuals. 

Vei^elable Garden — Sow largely peas, onions and spinach for main crop; 
also other seeds for succession, especially winter radishes. 

\OVE3mER. 

Flozver Garden — Continue planting hyacinths and other Dutch bulbs, and 
lilies of all kinds; also plant roses, evergreens and deciduous shrubs of all kinds. 
Form new lawn and renovate old ones. Carry out landscape alterations, 
if required; dig and manure borders, and energeticalK' proceed with all 
heavy work. 

Fegetahle Garden — Sow seeds as recommended in reference table for this 
month, and hill up young crops. Keep tlie ground thoroughly clean, and dig or 
plow manure in all unoccupied ground for future use. Keep down slugs by free 
use of salt, lime, or any other dressing which is beneficial to the growing crop. 

DECEMBER. 

Flozirr Garden — Operations same as last month. 
J'egetable Garden — Operations same as last month. 



PLANTS REST FOR FORCING IX A GLASS OR CLOTH HOUSE. 

Asparagus, bush beans, carrots, cauliflower, cress, cucumber (white spine) 
parsley, peas, tomato, muskmelons. 



GRADIXG PRUNES. 

Our California prunes are usually graded in six sizes by using wire inesh 
of dimensions given below : 

Grade. Width of Mesh 

For Green Fruit. For Dried Fruit. 

Extra, 40 to 50 to pound i-34 il4 

No. I, 50 to 60 to pound i34 i^ 

No. 2, 60 to 70 to pound 1/4 I 

No. 3, 70 to 80 to pound i 'A 

No. 4, 80 to 90 to pound 'A '-^ 

No. 5, 90 to 100 to poiHid ^ -Xs 



WEIGHTS PER BUSHEL 



lbs. 

Alfalfa 60 

Artichokes, Jerusalem 60 

Barley 48 

Beans, bush and pole 60 

" Castor 4.6 

Broom Corn Seed 46 

Bran 20 

Buckwheat 50 

Canary Seed 60 

Charcoal r'2 

Clover, Red, White and Alsike.... 60 

" Japanese 25 

Corn, Egyptian 50 

" Jerusalem 50 

" Kaffir 50 

" Shelled 56 

" Pop 70 

Flax Seed .' 56 

Grass Seed, Blue 14 

" " Brome 14 

" " Crested Dogstail 20 



lbs. 

Grass Seed, Hungarian 48 

Mesquite 7 

" " Orchard 14 

" " Red Top 14 

" Rye Grass Perennial.. 20 

" Rye Grass Italian 20 

" Timothy 45 

Hemp 44 

Millet 50 

Milo Maize 50 

Onions 57 

" sets 32 

Peanuts 22 

Peas, round seeded 60 

" Wrinkled 56 

Potatoes 60 

" sweet 50 

Rye 56 

Sorghum "^o 

Vetches 60 

Wheat 60 



SOWING TABLE FOR THE GARDEN. 

Quantity of seed required to produce a given number of plants, g»- to sow a 
given quantity of ground. 



Artichoke i oz. to 500 plants 

Asparagus 

... .1 oz. to 60 ft. of drill 500 plants 
Beans, Dwarf. . . .1 lb. to 50 ft of drill 

Beans, Tall i lb. to 75 hills 

Beets I oz. to 50 ft. of drill 

Broccoli I oz. to 2,000 plants 

Brussels Sprouts., i oz. to 2,000 plants 

Cabbage i oz. to 2,000 plants 

Carrot i oz. to 150 ft. of drill 

Cauliflower i oz. to 2,000 plants 

Celery 1 oz. to 5,000 plants 

Chicory i oz. to 100 ft. of drill 

Corn I lb. to 150 hills 

Cress I oz. to 100 ft. of drill 

Cucumber 1 oz. to 100 hills 

Eggplant 1 oz. to 2,000 plants 

Endive i oz. to 3,000 plants 

Kale r oz. to 2,000 plants 

Kohlrabi i oz. to 2,000 plants 

Leek i oz to 100 ft. of drill 

Lettuce i oz. to 5,000 plants 



Melon, W'ater i oz. to 30 hills 

Melon, Musk i oz. to 100 hills 

Okra I oz. to 50 ft. of drill 

Onion Seed....i oz. to 100 ft. of drill 
Onion, Top Sets..i lb. to 60 ft. of ro'v 
Onion, Bottom Sets, i lb. to 75 ft. of row 

Parsnip i oz. to 100 ft. of drill 

Parsley x oz. to 100 ft. of drill 

Peas I lb. to 50 ft. of drill 

Pepper i oz. to 1,000 plants 

Pumpkin 1 oz. to 25 hills 

Radish i oz. to 50 ft. of drill 

Salsify i oz. to 50 ft of drill 

Sage I oz. to 100 ft. of drill 

Spinach i oz. to 50 ft. of drill 

Squash, Early i oz. to 50 hills 

Squash, Winter i oz. to 15 hills 

Tomato i oz. to 3,000 plants 

Tobacco I oz to 10,000 plants 

Turnip, Early. . . . i oz. to 75 ft. of drill 
Turnip, Rutabaga, i oz. to loo ft. of drill 



GARDEN HELPS 



117 



DEGREES OF HEAT REQUIRED NIGHT AND DAY FOR PLANTS. 



Under cloth or glass in winter. 



VEGETABLES. 

Name. Day 

Asparagus 85 deg. 

Beans 70 " 

Cucumber 80 " 

Cauliflower 50 '' 

Lettuce 50 " 

Radish 55 " 

Tomato 75 " 

Melon 80 " 



FLOWERS. 



N 

85 
60 


ight. 
deg. 


70 




40 




40 




45 
60 




75 





Name 



D ax- 
Rose 65 ' 

Lily, Easter 65 ' 

Lily of Valley 90 ' 

Carnations 60 ' 

Chrysanthemums ...50 ' 

Smilax 60 ' 

Asparagus Plumosa.70 ' 

Violet 50 ' 



Night. 
55 
50 
90 
55 
45 
60 
60 
40 



TIME IN WHICH SEEDS GERMINATE. 



Days. 

Beans 5 to 10 

Beets 7 to 10 

Cabbage 5 to to 

Cauliflower 5 to 10 

Celery 10 to 20 

Corn 5 to 8 

Cucumbers 6 to 10 

Lettuce 5 to 6 

Endive 5 to lo 



Days. 

Onions 7 to 10 

Peas 6 to to 

Parsnips 10 to zo 

Peppers 9 to 10 

Radishes 3 to 6 

Salsify 7 to 12 

Tomato 6 to 12 

Turnips 4 to 8 



SEED REQUIRED FOR AN ACRE. 



Pounds. 

Alfalfa, clean seed 25 

Barle_v, broadcast 100 

Beans, dwarf or bush, hills 40 

Beans, dwarf or bush, drill 80 

Beans, pole, hills 25 

Beets, garden 6 

Beets, sugar 6 

Beets, stock, mangles 6 

Broom Corn, in drills 12 

Cabbage, sown in beds to transplant 1 2 

Corn, sweet, in hills 15 

Cucumbers, in hills i to 2 

Flax, for seed 30 

Flax, for fiber <;o 

Vetches, broadcast 100 

Wheat, broadcast 100 

Grass, Bermuda 10 

Grass, Kentucky blue 50 



Pounds. 

Hemp 50 

Melon, Water, hills 2 to 3 

Melon, Musk, hills 2 to 3 

Oats, broadcast 80 

Onions, drills 4 

Onions, for sett 30 

Parsnips, drills 5 

Peas, in drills 50 to 80 

Peas, broadcast 1 50 

Potatoes, in hills 600 

Pumpkin, in hills 3 

Radish, in drills 12 

Rye, broadcast loo 

Spinach, drills 12 

Squash, hills 4 

Tomatoes, in beds, transplant J/2 

Turnip, broadcast 3 to 4 



118 GARDENHELPS 

MISCELLANEOUS MEASURES. 

56,000 liquid grains maiie a gallon. 

One-tenth of an inch, one line — American measure. 

One-third of an inch is a "size" in footwear. 

Three inches is a palm measurement. 

Four inches is a "hand" measure. 

Four inches is one "span" measure. 

Nine inches is one "span" — horse measure. 

Eighteen inches is one cubit. 

Three and three-tenths feet is a pace, 2I2 feet, a military pace. 

One gallon, wine measure, is 231 cubic inches. 

A dry gallon is 268.8 cubic inches. 

An Imperial gallon, 277.274 cubic inches. 

United States bushel 2150.4 cubic inches. 

A pint of water equals 1.043 1 pounds. 

A gallon of water equals 8.2446 pounds. 

A cubic foot of water equals 52.425 pounds at 39.2 Fahr. deg. 

A statute mile is 1760 yards. 



HOUSEHOLD MEASURES. 

60 drops of water is one teaspoonful. 

One teaspoonful equals one fluid drachm. 

Two tabiespoonfuls equal one fluid ounce. 

A common sized tumbler holds half a pint. 

One pint of wheat is equal to one pound. 

One pound two ounces of Indian meal is equal to one quart. 

One pound of melted butter is equal to one pint. 

One pound of sugar equals one pint. 

One pint of pure water equals one pound. 



FOREIGN COINS. 

French franc, nearly twenty cents — 19.3. 
German mark, about 24 cents. 
Italian lira nearly 20 cents. 
Dutch florin, 40 cents. 
Spanish peseta 20 cents. 
Russian rouble about 54 cents. 
Austrian florin about 33 cents. 



G A R D E N H K L PS 119 

CALIFORNIA FRUIT 3IEASUREMENTS. 

The major portion of sales transactions of fruit in California marketing are 
by pounds in weight, but a bushel measure is nineteen and a half inches in 
diameter outside; half bushel, fifteen and a half inches; a peck is twelve and 
a half inches. 

Produce sold by dry measure must be heaped as full as the measure will 
hold, but usually grain is sold by sacks weighing one hundred pounds or less. 

For apples and pears the boxes are twenty-two inches in length, ends ten by 
twelve inches. This is called a fifty pound box, but it is sh.ort weight. 

Cherry boxes are fifteen and a half inches long and the ends eight and a 
half by three and a half. 

Fig boxes (twenty pound — two layer) are twenty inches long; ends two bv 
three and a half. Single layer boxes are same length, but two inches deep and 
hold nearly twelve pounds. 

Grapes are usually shipped either in baskets containing four pounds, eight 
of which baskets make a whole crate. Boxes generallv contain twentv-five 
pounds. Sometimes grapes are shipped in baskets filled between with sawdust. 

Oranges are shipped in boxes with partition in center as support, dimensions 
being twenty-two inches long by seven and tliree-fourths deep by seventeen and 
a half wide. This comprises the fiat box, but the one most used is twenty-six 
and a half by eleven and one-fourth. 

Lemon boxes are similar in form to orange boxes and weigh seventy pounds 
when filled. 

Canteloupe crates are thirty-eight inches long by sixteen inches in width and 
fifty inches deep. 

Watermelons are usually shipped in bulk in car or in any sort of large 
crate or boxes. 

Dried fruits are shipped in eighty-pound sacks. 

Plums are packed in twenty-pound boxes, nineteen and a half long by twelve 
and a half inches wide and four and one-fourth inches deep. 

Peaches are usually in twenty-two-pound boxes of the same size as the 
plum box. The twenty-five-pound, twenty-seven-pound and thirty-pound are the 
largest sizes. 



SEP M 1»»1 



120 



GARDEN HELPS 



Useful Reference Table 

Showing at a glance the beSl: time to plant the different kinds of seeds and plants, 
average time to mature and di^ance apart. 



VARIETY. 






Artichoke, Globe 

Asparagus (seed) 

Asparagus (roots) 

Beet, Table Varieties.. 
Beans, Broad or English 
Beans, Dwarf or Bush.. 

Beans, Pole 

Broccoli 

Brussels, Sprouts 

Cabbage, Early (seeds) . 
Cabbage, Early (plants) 
Cabbage, Late (seeds) . . 
Cabbage, Late 'plants). 

Carrot 

Cauliflower (seerlsi 

Cauliflower (plants).... 

Celery 

Chervil 

Chives 

Collards 

(Chicory 

Corn, Sweet 

C;orn, Salad 

Caress 

Cucumber 

Dandelion 

Eggplant ( seeds) 

Eggplant (plants > 

Endive 

Garlic (sets) 

Horse-radish (sets)... 

Kale 

Kohlrabi 

Leek 

Lettuce 

Melons, Musk 

Melons, Water 

Mustard 

Okra 

Onion (seeds) 

Onion (sets) 

Parsley 

Parsnip 

Peas 

Pepper (seeds) 

Pepper (plants) 

Potato (sets) 

Potato, Sweer rprantsi. 

Pumpkin 

Radish 

Rhubarb (seeds) 

Rhubarb (roots) 

Salsify 

Spinach 

Tobacco 

Tomato (seeds) 

Tomato (plants) 

Turnip 

Turnip, Swede, or Ruta 
baga 

Herl)s 



^< 



P 

s s 






Maturity Table 



Distance to 
Plant 



4 months 
3 years 
Second year 

7 to 8 weeks 
3 months 

6 to S weeks 

8 weeks 

3 months 

4 months 

3 Yo months 
31/^ months 

4 months 
4 months 

3 months 

4 to .5 months 

4 to 5 months 

5 months 

6 weeks 

2 to 3 months 

3 months 
6 weeks 

2 to 3 months 

6 to 7 weeks 
1 to 2 weeks 

7 to 10 weeks 

5 to 9 weeks 

3 to 4 months 
3 to 4 months 
(i weeks 

3 to 4 months 

6 months 

4 to 5 months 
4 months 

3 to 4 months 

4 to 7 weeks 

4 to 5 months 
3 to 4 months 
1 to 2 weeks 

3 months 

ZVz to 5 months 
3V^ to 5 months 

7 to 10 weeks 

4 months 

6 to 10 weeks 
4 to .5 months 
4 to 5 months 
2V-i to 4 months 

3 to 4 months 

4 months 

3 to .5 weeks 

3 years 
Second year 

4 to 5 months 
1 month 

7 months 

3 to 5 months 
3 to .5 months 

8 to 10 weeks 



24x36 inches 

36.X18 

36x18 

18x 4 

24x 4 

3 Ox 2 

3(1X30 

36x24 

24x18 

24x18 

24x18 

36x24 

36x24 

18x 4 

30x18 

30x18 

48x 8 

13x 4 

]2x 4 

36x18 

12x12 

36x12 

12x 6 

Thickly 

48x48 

6x 6 
36x36 
36x36 
12x 6 
18x 4 
12x 4 
24x12 
18x 6 
12x 5 
24x12 
60x6(t 
96x96 
Thickly 
36x12 
12x 4 
12x 4 
12x 6 
]8x 6 

30 between roTva 
30x12 inches 
30x12 
24x12 
48x18 
96x96 

8x 2 
48x48 
48x48 
18x 4 
Thickly 
24x24 
48x48 
48x48 
18x 4 



4 to 6 months 24x12 
Sow thinly in drills 






>P'<^ 









.^' 



0' 



ik'\K 



•;^- 



^"o-.S^- 















^^ .-. ^-^ '°*'^ ^<'- «o <t. 



.-^q. 






V 



•^■^ 5,0 -^^ 



.0 






r>^>. 



. '^^Zi,i^>'<' 



-?> 



^^^ 



.r\' 






K^ 



^o 













-0? v<i 

^P . , ^ " " " 
Yo ^ ^^ : "^ '^^ r"^ 



•t^^o^ 



/,.^/?^^'- o 






^^--^^^ 



O V 
0-.- 






4 o^ 



#T(?.?fe . -^^ A 





















,\ -^^ 



A 



x<> 



<^ 












o 



,-^ 



^^^ 

■^ 



.''A 









°^ 






0' 



<^^ 
•^^. 



.^ 



;^ 



V 



\^ 



;- «/%. "^^x^'' ^'% 



-f 



0^ :;-..'■- ^v^ 



.^'' c ° " = . O 



'P 






■y o_ 



^°-^^, 



0' 



"o V 



%c 



-u 






4 c> 



o. 



>p^4^. 



Ao, 






0- 



i-. 



,V 









■^'' .-. % 



.0^ 



•^ 



.0'^ 



^0' 






,,^ 



Hq. 



<-^ 



0' 



^^ 



,^ 



4 o 






sA^ 



< 



^^^ 
-f 



^ i: 


' <■ 


't. V; 


'i^ J^. 


^ 


^> 


^.^' 
«<"^^ 


, C, 0^ 


.^^' ^^. ^^^ 


^0^ ^^ * 


^-^ , -^ 


.''*•' o 


.^ .*>^'. ^ 






xO-n^^ 



-^^ 
<?•. 





















,~iy 



A<^^ 



O 



.♦ 






^' 



V-^' 



-• ^. .^' 


















0' 



5°^. 









.^ 






A ^ 



^o ... 

^ \\ ^^ 






■^ '^^ 

<. 






^i;- 






-^.^A 




T^ . ; •^ a\ ^>> 

,^. --^^ ^^ . ^^ <^^ .'^^^^ %^ 



N. MANCHESTER. 
INDIANA 






,^^ 






>p^^. 



/sV 






<^ 









'jJBRAKV OF CONGRESS 



